Who Died And Made You Oprah?
by ValkyriePhoenix
Summary: Sequel to WWIYCTM. Rogue and Remy face new challenges posed by a mysterious organisation. But trouble is also brewing closer to home. Will Joseph throw a spanner in their budding relationship? And what is Magneto planning? ROMY. LEMONS
1. Shiny Nugget

**AN: Welcome to the sequel. I hope you will enjoy it as much as the first one. **

**Big whoops for sharky who made this all possible. I worship the mighty Goddess. Sharky also totally talked me off a ledge and allowed this chapter to be posted so soon! I hope you appreciate all Sharky's hard work!**

**Song (does anyone actually listen to them?): **_Cut_ **- **Plumb**  
**

* * *

When Rogue let the man up and turned on the light, she gasped. If she didn't know better she would have sworn blind that a young, handsome Magneto was standing in front of her.

With effort she pulled her faze away and moved to sit on her bed. It was then that Joseph began to speak.

"The first thing I remember is waking up in an alley with no memory of how I got there. I had a name tag around my neck with 'Joseph' and a date on. I assume it is my date of birth. I saw you on the news and I know that you are a member of the X-Men. Apparently they can help me."

Rogue sighed and rubbed her forehead before glancing at her alarm clock. The red numbers read 3:02.

"Alright. I'll call Professor Xavier in the morning. Right now I'm going to bed. For now you can sleep in the spare room. It's opposite mine." She brushed past him and held the door open. He nodded to her "Thank you and goodnight, Miss Rogue." He opened the door she pointed to with a gesture and promptly got smacked in the back of the head.

He spun around and held his hands up in a "What was that for?" motion.

Rogue used her telepathy to say "No powers!" she held back her surprise that Mag's doppelganger had his powers.

Joseph carefully went into the room and shut the door behind him. Rogue did the same.

* * *

_"I'm sorry Rogue but you'll have to keep him there. He sounds like a clone to me but I can't do anything right now. There's no space in the mansion after the raid on the Purifier base. Most of them will be leaving but not until they are healed and have somewhere to go."_

"Alright. There's a spare room next to mine and he doesn't seem to be a threat. If he does anything I don't like I'll knock him into the middle of next week."

_"You are the soul of thoughtfulness Rogue."_ There was a crash from the other end of the line.

"Professor?"

_"Armour decided to demonstrate her powers in a confined space. I will talk to you another time. Goodbye Rogue."_

"Bye Professor." She hung up.

Sighing, Rogue put her phone on her desk before leaving her room.

She knocked on Joseph's door and it swung open. Slowly entering she saw him sitting cross legged on his bed.

"Okay you can stay. But rule 1 is no using powers around the humans. That includes the door opening tricks. No one here knows you are a mutant and I'd like to keep it that way."

"My apologies. So the Professor is unable to assist me?"

Rogue shifted her weight "Not exactly. Things are just really crazy at the mansion right now. Until then you're stuck here. Unless you want to go somewhere else?"

Joseph hadn't stopped staring at her since she entered. And it wasn't 'I'm paying attention' staring, it was 'every fibre of my being is concentrating on you' staring. And it was making her slightly uncomfortable.

"No thank you. I'd like to stay here. With you."

"Great. I'm going to breakfast."

She had turned and was at the door when she heard his voice "May I join you?"

* * *

Breakfast was a ...tense... affair. Remy wasn't downstairs yet and Rogue was dreading his arrival.

"So Joseph" asked Luke, with his mouth full of Shreddies. "What brings you to visit our fair Rogue?"

"One of her friends is going to help me with a project I need for my degree."

Rogue exhaled slowly and relaxed. Most of her housemates had bought Joseph's story.

But she stiffened when Joseph shuffled closer to her.

She was saved when Remy entered. Rogue immediately leapt to her feet, grabbed Remy's hand and pulled him out of the room with a "Be right back guys." Aimed at everyone sitting at the table.

In the living room Remy pulled his hand from Rogue's and said "Who was dat?"

"His name is Joseph and he arrived last night." Remy raised an eyebrow. "Okay arrived last night actually means 'snuck into my room at 3 in the morning.'"

Remy grabbed her arm and started looking all over her body. "Did he hurt y'? I swear I'm gonna kick dat salud so hard he won't remember his own name!"

Pulling her hand from his, Rogue placed her hands on either side of his face. "Remy. Calm down. I'm fine. If he had tried anything he would be a smear on the wall right now." She pressed a quick reassuring kiss to his lips.

Remy's expression of anger didn't change. He pulled away from Rogue and sat down on one of the sofas.

Rogue was concerned about Remy but she didn't understand why he was acting this way. "Look, Rems. You can either like this or lump it. That man needs our help and I have promised Xavier that I'd look after him-"

"Screw Xavier chère! I t'ought y' were done with dat shit. Y' left de X-Men for a reason!"

Rogue looked at him in shock. She'd never seen him so angry.

"Well." She said in a soft voice. "If that's the way you feel." She turned and walked out. When she heard a bang and glanced back she saw that Remy had slammed the front door on his way out. A single tear slipped out before it was wiped away. Plastering a smile on her face, she returned to the kitchen.

* * *

"Here's some bedding and a towel. The bathroom is just in here and you can use the rec room whenever you want. There's a games console down there too. But don't break it as it belongs to one of the boys and he'll throw a fit. Is there anything else you need to know."

"No. Thank you very much for all of this, Rogue. It means a lot to me that you trust me and are trying to help me with this."

Rogue blushed "It's no problem. I'm sure you'd do the same for me. Anyway. I better get goin' I've got a lecture in 10 minutes. I'll see you this evening. The boys have got me cookin again. I hope you like Southern food!"

Joseph smiled "I do not know if I like it. But as you are cooking it I am sure it will be divine."

Rogue smiled at him again and hurried off, pulling on her coat as she quickly walked out of the house.

Joseph watched her leave with an almost wistful smile. He was thinking about Rogue and how nice she was and he was so absorbed in these thoughts that he almost missed Remy's voice.

He followed the sound to one of the empty downstairs study rooms and heard:

"-care what he says, I don' wanna do this no more. I can't keep lying to Rogue!"

Joseph snuck closer and peered through a small gap "And what should I tell her? Chère, I love you more than life itself but I was sent here to spy on you? Oui. Dat will go down really well! You imbecile! I will be lucky she doesn't throw me through a wall!"

Joseph had heard enough. He snuck away from the door and hurried to his new room. He got in the room and leaned back on the door. He allowed himself a smile. This was a shiny nugget that he planned to use to the fullest.


	2. The devil eyed, lying thief

**AN: Here's chapter two. Once again - big thanks to Sharky who made this all possible :)**

**I own nothing except an awesomely large box of chocolates which I received for helping with the tech on a preview weekend. Score me. Marvel owns everything else.**

**Song: **_Dragula _**-** Rob Zombie**  
**

* * *

The next day, after breakfast had been cleared away, Rogue approached Joseph.

"I was wondering if you would like to go shopping. I mean you don't have many clothes or many things at all really so yeah..." Rogue trailed off.

Joseph smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder "I would be honoured. There is a small problem though. I have a severe lack of monetary funds."

"Oh that's no problem. The Professor gave me some money just for this sort of thing."

"Well then I would be delighted."

* * *

"What about this one?" asked Rogue, holding up a rugby shirt.

"That looks fabulous. Add it to The Pile."

'The Pile' really did need the capital letters. It was an ever growing mountain of clothes that, in Rogue's opinion, would soon eclipse Mt Everest.

"Shall we get going now?" asked Rogue, glancing at her watch.

"Yes. Thank you very much for this." Between them they managed to get The Pile past the grinning face of the manager and to the check out.

Joseph turned and watched as Rogue waited for the cashier to scan everything. He stared at the vision before him. She flipped her hair out of her face and over her shoulder. The light glinted off it making it look like there were some strands of gold in there. She turned to look at him and he was mesmerised by the emeralds in front of him. She smiled and the emeralds seem lit by a mysterious light.

Joseph grabbed Rogue's hand and pulled it to his mouth to press a gentle kiss to the back of it. Rogue had turned to see Joseph staring at her and thought that by smiling at him it might break him out of his stupor. But it didn't work too well. Rogue ended up blushing ten shades of red and thanked God that the cashier was done so she could extricate her hand from his to pay.

Rogue ended up shouldering most of the bags as she had the advantage of super strength. But this just gave Joseph the excuse to chivalrously open each and every door for her with an elaborate bow.

After dumping the bags in the boot of Rogue's Lambo Joseph turned to her "What shall we do now?"

Rogue was halfway to the driver's door "Well I thought we were heading back?"

"Couldn't we go for a snack or something?" asked Joseph sidling closer.

"Well I really need to get back. I mean there are some things I need to do. If you want I'll make something for you when we get back."

Joseph nodded and backed off. They got in the car and drove home.

* * *

Remy was in his watching chair, the same chair he had used when Logan had come the first time. After his argument with Rogue he had gone to cool off. He spent the rest of the day moping around and thinking what he had done. The next morning he realised that he was actually in the wrong and had gone to apologise. Only to find that Rogue had taken Joseph out shopping.

Remy knew he was pretty much driving her away. He had to remedy this.

So that's why he was sitting, waiting for them to return.

He heard the growl of the Lambo's V10 and was out of his chair and by the door within seconds. He waited until she had shut down the engine before opening the door.

He leant on the door frame as he watched Rogue get out of her car. She was laughing at something that Joseph must have said and Remy unsurprisingly was not happy about this.

Rogue looked up and saw Remy. She automatically started to smile but then remembered Remy's anger from yesterday and her face fell. She turned to get the bags and Joseph joined her, wondering about her sudden drop in mood.

It was only when they were walking to the house that he realised.

Remy.

The devil eyed, lying thief. Joseph didn't know what Rogue saw in him.

Joseph sent him a glare as he pushed past. He walked a few steps before turning to say something to Rogue. It was then that he realised she wasn't following. She was standing next to that bastard.

"Rogue?" he asked "Are you coming?" His expression made it clear that he expected a yes.

She glanced at him "No. You go on ahead. I'll drop these bags off later."

Well there wasn't much Joseph could do about that. He humphed and carried on his way.

Rogue, meanwhile was leaning on the other side of the door frame looking up at Remy through her lashes. She had put the bags down and folded her arms defensively.

"Rogue..." Remy broke the silence first. He moved towards her until he was standing right in front of her. They were very close. Rogue could almost count every piece of stubble.

"'M sorry chère. I shouldn't have reacted like dat. I was jus' worried about y'. Can y' forgive dis poor Cajun t'ief?"

Rogue looked up at him and smiled timidly "Of course I can." Her smiled grew but this time it contained a glint of steel. "But if you ever try to control my life again, I will fly you to the other side of the world and see how many kicks it takes to get you back here. Got it?"

Remy chuckled "Oui, mon capitain." He leant down for a kiss and was rewarded by Rogue wrapping her arms around his neck.

* * *

A few nights later Rogue was in her room, struggling with an essay that was due in for the next day, when someone knocked on her door.

"Come in." She replied distractedly.

The door creaked open just enough to admit the head of Joseph.

"Hello Rogue. What are you doing?"

Rogue glanced up from her work long enough to acknowledge Joseph's existence on the planet and reply "Homework. You are so luck you don't have stupid things like this to do."

Joseph nodded sagely in understanding. "Well when was the last time that you ate?"

Rogue looked up again and focused on the wall in front of her. "Um... Yesterday."

Joseph tsked. "Well it's good that I made you dinner!"

This really caught Rogue's attention. "But you don't know how to cook!"

"Well when I say 'cook' what I actually mean is 'pour boiling water over noodles that I bought from the store that Matt took me to earlier and then microwave them' They are safe to eat, apparently. Some of the others were kind enough to observe my progress and stop any calamities from occurring."

Rogue smiled at him "That is most kind of you. I'm starvin' so anything sounds good right now."

She got up from her chair and stretched, trying to get the kinks out of her back and some feeling back into her bum.

Joseph watched as a sliver of her tummy was exposed when she stretched and how her body bowed forward. He thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world.

Rogue walked towards him and said "So where's the food."

Joseph took this opportunity to grab her hand and lead her into the kitchen.


	3. We can tag team them!

**AN: Here is Chappie 3. Thanks to Sharky for getting me past my writers block. "Writers block is when your characters get tired of everything you do to them and go on strike" Can't remember where that is from but it is so true!**

**Song: **_Only If We Try_ **- **Jamie Bathgate **(Ironically I dated his younger brother, who helps him with his music, and apparently this song is based on and inspired by me. Yay(!) Jamie is really talented though and you should totally get his album)  
**

* * *

Rogue was walking back from her class when she met Remy leaving the house.

"Bonjour, chère."

"Hey Rems. Where are you off to?" She looked at his shorts and t-shirt.

"Gon' play a bit of B-bal. Some fools challenged Gambit. Dey gon' regret it."

Rogue laughed at the evil expression on his face. "Mind if I join you? We can tag team them!"

"Dat's great. Dey'll feel even worse bein' beaten by une femme!"

"Let me get changed and then I'll join you." She flew to her window and used her telekinesis to open it.

Minutes later she flew down and joined him, also attired in shorts and a t-shirt. "Let's go kick some ass!"

* * *

When they arrived at the courts, they found Neal and a bunch of his friends, pushing each other and fucking about like most guys.

"Alright! Let's get this show on the road." Neal shouted when he saw Rogue and Remy.

Rogue spoke up as the guys ambled over. "Let's make this exciting. All of you guys versus Remy and me."

Some of the guys went "Pfft" and nudged each other. "You guys think you can take all of us?"

Remy shrugged "Well if you guys can' handle it..."

One of the other boys, _'Alex'_ prompted Tessa, stepped forward "Oh not a chance. We'll take you guys on."

"Powers?" queried Rogue.

The other boys exchanged glances. "Nothing destructive. Like no laser beams." Said Neal wiggling his hands in front of his eyes.

Rogue smiled an evil smile that Remy had seen before and also grinned. He knew that the boys were going down.

"Bring it." Rogue challenged.

"Oh it's on like Donkey Kong!" cheered Alex, high fiving one of his friends.

The boys got in rough positions on one side of the court while Rogue and Remy discussed tactics.

"What have y' got f'me, chère?"

Rogue did a mental check "Super speed, teleportation, fast processing, shape shifting, flight, telepathy, telekinesis, phasing and I can turn my body into diamond. I also have this ability to subconsciously and psionically initiate random telekinetic acts that affect probability in my favour by making improbable, but not impossible, things occur within my line of sight, thus causing me to have 'good luck' and my opponents to have 'bad luck.'" She made quotation signs with her hands.

"Wow." Remy was slightly stunned. "Use whatever you want. But how about this?"

Remy shared his plan with Rogue and she smiled "Got it. Those boys are in for one hell of a ride!"

They spread out and, in the interest of fair play, Rogue was given the ball to start. Closing her eyes she focused on the power she wanted and them snapped them open.

Before anyone realised it she was down the other end of the court and shooting at the hoop. It went in, obviously while the boys were still trying to work out where she had gone.

"I think that's one to us." she said blowing the boys a kiss as she sauntered back to Remy, tossing them the ball.

This time the boys huddled and worked out some semblance of a plan. They thought that because there was 10 of them and only two of Rogue and Remy that they would have the advantage this time.

They squared up and through their first pass. Rogue darted to block the player with the ball and when he tossed it to his friend, she teleported to her new target.

She saw her mark throw the ball and Remy leap to intercept. He just managed it, unbelievably.

He bounced it to Rogue who, at her own speed, dodged, ducked, dipped and dived around the markers. She was using Tessa's fast processing and so could see the move her opponent was going to make and move around them.

When she was under the net she flew upwards, flipped upside down and simply dropped the ball through the hoop.

This was going to be easier than they thought.

For their next attack Rogue decided to use Mystique's power. This time when the other team got the ball, she shifted first into a lion to scare them with her roar, and then when they dropped the ball, she changed to a monkey. Who grabbed the ball and, dodging feet, scampered to the net. Then shifting into a large eagle, who gripped the ball, carefully so as not to pop it, she flew upwards and dropped the ball. She shifted back to her original form when she was a few feet from the ground.

Most of the guys were staring at her in shock and some of them had realised that they were fighting a losing battle.

Now it was Remy's turn to show off. He leapt for the ball and after catching it did a somersault to land in a crouch. He glanced up, his eyes almost glowing as he dodged with inhuman grace, tumbling and whirling around the other players. For a flashy finish he pushed off another player and did a backwards somersault to land on the net. Except he was upside down. On one hand. Dropping the ball through the net he flipped down again and fist bumped Rogue, loving their gobsmacked expressions.

By the end of the game it was a lot of points to Rogue and Remy and not many to the guys.

"I t'ink dey've learnt dey're lesson. Don' play ball with de mutants as dey are competitive by nature."

* * *

It was almost the end of the semester and so there was the usual big blow out. This year there was a carnival and Rogue and Remy decided to attend, if only for the candy floss.

Joseph ended up tagging along as he was bored and didn't know many people.

Wandering around they spotted a Freak Show attraction that said "Green Haired Magnet Girl!" Rogue pulled Remy over so she could take a closer look at the sign.

After quickly scanning it she tugged on Remy's sleeve "Look! I think she's a mutant. Let's go take a look."

Remy turned to the sign and said "Okay but – whoa!" Rogue had grabbed him and started tugging him along. Entering the tent they saw a small stage with a woman standing on it. She had her hands spread open and was manipulating three metal spinning tops – placing them on top of each other and making them spin in opposite directions.

Using Tessa's power Rogue confirmed to Remy and Joseph that she was indeed a mutant. Rogue also said that her powers were strangely like Magneto's. Not as strong as Magneto's but still formidable. They waited until she had finished her current show and retired backstage for a short break.

Remy, using his thief skills, snuck around the back and when the coast was clear signalled to Rogue and Joseph to join him.

Opening the flap he found himself staying very, very still as there was a knife hovering in mid air, aimed at his throat.

"Alright. What do you want? If you think of trying to hurt me then know that I can kill you with a thought."

Remy held up his hands "Easy chère. We're mutants too. We jus' wanna talk."

The knife was back in the woman's hand as she sat down on a stool in front of a vanity mirror. "Sorry. I've had to be careful. Not everyone likes mutants that much..." she trailed off as Rogue and then Joseph entered her tent. "Dad?" she asked shocked.

Joseph was even more so. "No. I am not your father. My name is Joseph."

The woman shook her head "Sorry... You just look uncannily like my father... But younger. How can that be?"

Rogue took over. "We're not sure. If you are Magneto's daughter then you should have heard of Charles Xavier?"

She nodded "Yes. Father always spoke kindly of him. When he wasn't ruining his plans for mutant supremacy."

This made Rogue smile. "Yeah he does that. So you are Magneto's daughter? That must make you Lorna."

'Lorna' seemed pleasantly surprised that Rogue had guessed her identity. "How did you know?"

"I have your father, your brother and your sister in my head. It wasn't hard. Why aren't you with him?"

Lorna sighed "I wanted a break. I mean travelling around different places and causing general destruction is fun for a while... But soon everyone hates you."

Remy enquired "But why a carnival?"

Lorna shrugged "Same travelling, new people, less death and destruction. The pay is crappy but I can use my powers and not get shouted at. All I have to deal with is the odd mutant hating bastard. But they're normally quite fun. Well the insane ones are."

Strangely enough Rogue could find herself empathising with this girl. After all she had been with the Brotherhood for some time...

Remy watched as Lorna's eyes kept straying back to Joseph and held back a smile.

"Polaris!" Came a gruff voice from outside the tent. "You're on in 5!"

"Thanks Gary!" Lorna called back . "Look you guys better get out of here... You could be in real trouble if you are found." She got up and began ushering them to the door.

"Well it was nice meeting you." Said Rogue as she was shoved out of the tent.

"We better move before we get into a dilemma." Said Joseph quietly, urgency dripping from every syllable.

As innocently as possible the three of them wandered back towards the brighter lights of the carnival. Remy spotted a booth that was advertising "5 shots $1" with a man outside saying "Everybody's a winner. Come and win a prize for your lady at the best shooting game in town!"

It was now Rogue's turn to be pulled somewhere and when they stopped outside the booth she glanced at Remy with a wry smile.

Remy leaned down and put his mouth near her ear "See de big lion?" She nodded "I'm winning that f' y'."

Rogue smiled and simply nodded. Remy handed over the money and picked up the fun. Aiming at the little discs he managed to get 4 down easily. He turned to Rogue to flash a cocky smirk but when he turned back and pulled the trigger for the final time he found that he had missed.

Confused by this he glanced at Rogue who was looking strangely innocent. He raised an eyebrow and she just smiled back.

"Here ya go." Said the cheery man, holding a very small stuffed bear.

Rogue laughed and said "You can keep that thing. I'm winning the lion myself."

She handed him a dollar and picked up another gun. Barely waiting any time between aiming and firing Rogue soon had all 5 targets down.

The man behind the stall was stunned. "Um... Here's your prize, miss. Well done!"

She accepted the lion with a big smile and a "Thank you" before turning to grin at Remy and then sauntering away.

"Y' cheated!" accused Remy as he ran to catch up with her.

"Remy! Perish the thought. It's not my fault that I'm a better marksman than you... Don't be a sore loser now!"

"One day chère. One day soon Gambit's gonna teach y' some manners." He said, lightly slapping her on the bum.

"Remy!" cried Rogue in mock outrage before bumping her hip into his. He chuckled and wrapped an arm around her waist, his hand slipping easily into the back pocket of her jeans.

"You are so bad, ya know that?" Murmured Rogue as she wrapped her free hand around his waist.

"I know chère. And de amazing t'ing is you still fell for moi."

"I didn't fall for you. Ya tripped me!" Joked Rogue.

Remy leant down to rub her nose with his and whispered "I'm just glad you let me catch you."

Rogue turned to face him as they stopped walking and placed her hands on his chest. "I'm glad you keep catching me. And put up with my awful temper and mood swings and-" she was cut off by Remy pressing his lips to hers.

"'M not that perfect either chère."

"I know. Well at least you're cute. But charm will only get you so far." She quickly pressed a kiss to his lips and then ducked under his incoming arm. She laughed as she ran and glanced back to see him chasing her, also laughing.

Like Tallahassee said "Enjoy the little things." Because it's amazing how fast the world can go from good to bad to total shit storm.

* * *

**AN: Yeah the last bit is from Zombieland. Epic film. If you haven't seen it then PLEASE watch it. It's gory but so totally hilarious!**


	4. Never make that woman made at you

**AN: I own nothing except a sore back and a bottle of water.**

**I worked very hard to get this chapter out. It's over 3,000 words (hint hint Sharky) and I hope it get's a better response than the last chapter. **

**Did I do something wrong? It didn't seem as popular as the last two and yet I really liked the carnival scene. I thought it added an extra dimension to Rogue and Remy's relationship. But if you didn't like it then...**

**Um this might be the last chapter for a while. Sorry.**

**Song:** _Leave Out All The Rest_ **- **Linkin Park **(Btw this chapter is dedicated to Adam who introduced me to LP and to Josh as this was our song)  
**

* * *

Rogue got the call from Xavier about a week later.

"_We've finally got everything sorted out. I am now in a position to accept Joseph."_

"Thank God. I'll bring him over first thing tomorrow as the semester is almost over and I've got no more major classes or lectures."

"_My call does have another purpose, however."_

"Oh?"

"_I was wondering if you, and maybe Remy, would help Logan and Betsy with something."_

"I'm listening."

"_We are organising a trip for some of the year round students and need more chaperones."_

"Sure. I've got nothing on and I'm sure Remy would love to come. When do we leave?"

"_Next Thursday. So you'll have some time at the mansion with the others."_

"That sounds great - oooh! Remy's here. Rems!" She shouted, covering the mouth piece with a hand. "Are you free for the next month or so?"

The Professor heard a muffled "Oui. Pour quoi?"

"Wanna take a trip with Logan, a supermodel, me and a bunch of kids?"

"I t'ought you were a supermodel." Rogue must have glared at him or something because he then said "Sure."

"Sweet." Rogue spoke into the phone again after removing her hand. "We're in."

* * *

The next morning Remy and Rogue were loading their bags into Rogue's Lambo when Joseph exited the building.

"Okay. So, Joseph, you are with my in my baby and Remy's on his bike. Is that okay with you?"

Joseph beamed like he had just won an award and said "Most definitely." He handed her his bag and, when she bent over to squish it in, sent Remy a smirk.

Rogue stood up and commanded "Well let's get going then!" She turned as Joseph got into the car and pressed a lingering kiss to Remy's lips. "I hope you won't miss me too much." She said with a smile, as one hand played with a piece of Remy's hair.

"Chère, what Gambit'll miss most is de feeling of y' body pressed against mine." He dipped down for another kiss and nipped her bottom lip gently.

Rogue pushed him away "Get on your damn bike Cajun, before I change my mind about going and drag you up to my room."

Remy chuckled and mounted his bike. He waited for Rogue to head off before following her.

The trip took several hours and the time passed slowly. Rogue and Joseph played 'I Spy' and 'Yellow Car' while Remy gritted his teeth and tried to concentrate on the bike between his legs.

It was a great relief to see the mansion ahead.

Jubilee, Logan and Kitty stood outside, waiting for them.

Rogue had barely stopped her car and put the handbrake on before she was flying out of it, literally, and launching herself at Logan.

They were both laughing as they embraced and Jubilee was having none of it. She tapped Rogue on the shoulder and, when she turned, Jubes held her arms open. Rogue hugged her friend tightly and then opened an arm out for Kitty to join them. They all started talking a mile a minute about what had happened since they'd last seen each other and soon were giggling like school girls.

Logan, Remy and Joseph just stared at them like they had fallen from the sky.

Popping the trunk Logan grabbed the bags and said "Let's leave them to it. No idea what could happen if we stick around and I don't really wanna find out."

* * *

Logan kindly escorted Joseph to the Professor's office before showing Remy where his room was. At Remy's cheeky question of "An' where's ma belle femme staying?" he got told, in no uncertain terms, that she was in the girls wing and that he should associate going into the girls wing with being castrated.

Remy was strangely quiet after that.

Logan, after Remy declared that he was going to have a look around went to find Rogue.

She was sitting in the rec room, on one of the sofas, chatting with a few of the other girls.

"Rogue?" Asked Logan. She turned around and smiled at him before getting up and joining him at the door. "I'll see you guys later." She said to the girls before saying "Hey Logan, what's up?"

They started to walk down the corridor. "I was thinking of running a DR session. You in?"

"Yes! I never thought I would say this but I actually miss the old DR Sessions."

Logan smiled at that "Gumbo gonna come?"

"Course! He wouldn't miss the chance to show off for the world. I'm gonna see if they Professor's done with Joseph. I wanna invite him as it would be interesin' to see how you handle him. what with him being able to manipulate metal."

Logan humphed before saying "You go see Chuck. I'll round up the kids."

* * *

Rogue raised her hand to knock but then thought better of it. She reached out with her telepathy and found the Professor's brain.

'_Hello Rogue.'_

'_Hi Professor. Sorry to bother you but I was wondering if you were done with Joseph as we were going to have a Danger Room session and thought he might be interested in joining in.'_

'_We are almost done. Do come in.'_

Opening the door she found Joseph sitting in chair in front of the Professor. He turned at the sound of her entry and smiled at her.

"Thank you Joseph. I will do some research and get back to you. For now Logan has planned a Danger Room session." The Professor smiled wryly. "Enjoy."

Joseph got out of the chair and moved to shake the Professor's hand. "Thank you for all your help, sir."

Rogue held the door for him and just as the door was closing the Professor heard Joseph asked in a worried voice. "What's a Danger Room session?"

* * *

"Alright guys and gals. Here's what's happening. I'll split you into teams and after that it's a basic capture the flag game."

Joseph turned to Rogue and opened his mouth. She cut him off with a "You get their flag and stop them getting ours."

He nodded, his question answered.

When Rogue had told him that Danger Room sessions involved the X-Men in a hostile situation, normally a very nasty one if Logan was in charge, trying to achieve something, work together as a team and not get shot at he was slightly worried.

But this Capture the Flag concept seemed easy enough.

'_Famous last words'_ he thought as Logan read out the teams.

"Rogue, Gumbo, Joseph, Betsy, Storm, John and Neal are on one team. Jubilee, Kitty, Bobby, Piotr, Beast, Nightcrawler and I are on the other. Thunderbird – try not to incinerate anyone this time."

Neal nodded sheepishly and Rogue looked mildly interested. It was strange to see how alike Thunderbird Neal and her friend Neal from college were. The thought of them two teaming up did scare her slightly though.

"One rule. You must cross the line whilst not using your powers. So no teleporting or flying or going intangible so no one can grab you. You must use your own skills as soon as the boundary line is in sight. Clear?"

"Computer: Run session 'Capture the Flag 3'" commanded Wolverine after everyone had nodded and the others watched as the room shifted into what seemed to be a forest/park setting. Rogue could see a large lake not far away complete with ducks, and a long grassy hill.

"Okay teams – split up!" Logan began to lead his team in one direction and Storm called her team in the other.

"Okay everyone. We are going to split into two teams. An offensive team, who will go after the opponents', flag and a defensive team to stay and defend ours. Any volunteers for either team?"

Rogue stuck her hand up "Offence please."

Remy joined her "Moi aussi, sil vous plaît, Stormy."

Rolling her eyes at the nickname.

After some more volunteers and some shuffling Rogue, Remy and John were on offence, Joseph, Neal and Betsy were on defence and Storm said that she would be scouting from above and helping out where she was needed.

They heard the siren announce that the game had begun and the defence team ran off to set their flag up in a defensible position.

Rogue flew down low, with Remy and John running along beside her until they got the boundary line. It was simply a line of small rocks stretching out to either side but it marked the point where you were safe and in your own territory and when you were behind enemy lines.

If you got tagged by an opposing team member while in their territory, you were forced to walk back to your team line.

Rogue started to fly a little higher. It was harder to navigate but it was also harder to see her. By doing this she was able to spot and subsequently avoid Bobby and Piotr who were moving through the forest, possibly looking for them.

Soon Rogue managed to spot the flag. Only Jubes was sitting near it, looking bored and blowing bubble gum. Knowing that something was up, Rogue flitted down to Gambit and John and relayed her thoughts to them.

Using her telepathy she managed to 'see' that Piotr had turned around and was now hiding in the woods, watching the flag. Nightcrawler was doing the same.

"I'm gonna be cannon fodder. Rems, you're fast and agile so you go for the flag. John can you cover him with fire? Like surround him or something so no one can get to him."

"No problemo." Said John, pulling out his lighter.

"Alright. Good luck gentleman." Said Rogue with a half smile before she took off. When she thought she was in a good position she let out a piercing whistle.

"Oi! You lot. I'm here. I'm thinkin' about stealin' that nice lookin' flag over there. Anyone gonna stop me?"

Bobby was suddenly sliding up to her. She turned and managed to dodge out of the way of a beam of ice. Remy saw this and dashed over, ignoring the plan, to charge the ice.

Rogue saw him doing this out of the corner of her eye and suddenly swooped down, trying to help him. John also ran over as he had no idea about what the others were up to.

Remy had charged the ice up but was distracted by the arrival of Rogue. "What d'ya think you're doin', swamp rat?"

"Tryin to help ma chère, of cour-" He was cut off as the charge he had in the ice suddenly blew. Rogue, Remy and John flew through the air.

Rogue managed to grab Remy and was reaching for John but he slipped through her fingers.

Unfortunately this meant that he landed in the nearby lake.

Remy was rather smug about this and he just had to comment. "Gambit can't help but notice you save him chère, and not de Firefly. Must be ma way with women." Rogue raised an eyebrow before flying over to where John was beginning to stand up. "Don't flatter yourself, swamp boy." She said before dumping him the water.

John reached down to pull him to his feet. "Little piece of advice Cajun: Never make that woman made at you." He quipped, pulling the sodden Gambit to his feet.

Rogue, meanwhile had flown back to where Jubilee was looking slightly guilty. Rogue guessed that Jubes had fired her plasma balls, missed and forced the ice to explode unexpectedly.

"Big mistake." Smiled Rogue evilly as she hovered in front of Jubilee.

"Okay… You are seriously up there with Wolverine and Mystique on the list of people who shouldn't be allowed to smile like that." Said Jubilee, looking to the sides for an escape route.

Rogue zoomed towards Jubilee and grabbed her by the collar of her uniform. Depositing her burden in the top of a tree, Rogue gave her a cheery smile and cocky salute before zooming back down.

Bobby and John were currently in a fire/ice battle and she decided to leave them to it. That just left Piotr and Kurt.

Piotr was standing, in metal form, in front of the flag. Rogue started to wonder where Kurt was when she heard a *bamph* behind her. Reacting on instinct she zoomed straight upwards, utilising every ounce of her supersonic flight.

When she deemed herself high enough she glanced down to see that Kurt had vanished again. Remy was now walking towards Piotr, twirling his staff around nonchalantly.

Rogue decided to stay in her elevated position so that she would be ready when Kurt reappeared.

Remy stood in front of Piotr sizing up the metal man. Without warning he dashed forward and gave Colossus a sold thwack to the head before flipping over him. Dodging every swipe that was aimed at him, Remy had soon reduced the mighty giant to a panting wreck.

"Not quick enough, homme?" he asked cockily before he heard a *bamph* next to him.

He managed to turn fast enough to see Kurt grabbing for him. Flipping out of range the two of them began a complex dance of quick blows and then one would follow up while the other somersaulted away.

Regrettably Kurt had forgotten about Rogue. And so he was slightly surprised when he found his feet frozen to the ground. Rogue alighted next to him and blew at the guns she made with her hands.

"Go for the flag, Rems. I'm gonna break up the testosterone match over there." She said, gesturing with her thumb at John and Bobby who were still at it.

Remy was gone as soon as she had finished that sentence and so she flew behind Bobby, making to stay out of his line of sight.

Settling just behind him she quickly picked him up and flew him up in the air.

John stopped flaming him as soon as Rogue picked him up. "Go back up Remy!" Shouted Rogue and John raced after the Cajun who was already running to boundary line.

"Now Rogue. I want you to know that I really respect you as a person and think you are an incredible fighter."

"Please." Interrupted Rogue before he could grovel any more. "You're just saying that so I'll try not to drop you."

"Try?" asked Bobby, worriedly.

Meanwhile...

Joseph had restrained Wolverine but wasn't sure how much longer he could hold him for. Neal was trying to keep Kitty back using his plasma attacks to melt holes in the ground. And Betsy was involved in a complicated fight with Beast.

Storm was hovering out of sight, ready to dive in when she was needed when she caught sight of Remy running for the line.

She stayed silent until he had crossed the line before letting loose a cheer as the current setting melted away.

Jubilee found this most disconcerting as she started to plummet to the ground. Luckily Rogue was expecting this and managed to easily catch her.

"Sorry about that Jubes." Rogue said as she put Bobby and Jubilee down. They mock glared at her for a bit before smiling and starting to chat about the exercise.

Logan was a bit put out that his team hadn't won but all his anger seemed to disappear when Storm put her hand on his arm. He smiled at her before turning to the group who was starting to gather. "Well done guys. Now Scooter would want a full de-briefing with diagrams and flow charts. But as it will piss him off you guys can all go and chill out. Now beat it."

Rogue flew over to Remy and picked him up, swinging him around a bit before hugging him. "Hahaha we won!" She bubbled, on a high from their victory.

This made Remy smile "Course we did. With y' an' me on the team, we had to."

She wrapped an arm around his waist and he slung an arm over her shoulder. They walked out of the Danger Room and parted ways briefly to get changed.

When they met again they decided to head to the rec room for some down time. Unfortunately some of the gang had a poked game going. Remy sent Rogue a desperate pleading look and so she acquiesced. "Go on then. I'm gonna go for a walk."

Remy was halfway to the table after the first syllable and he nodded and said "Sure." distractedly.

She shook her head at her boyfriend before wandering outside.

The weather was getting cooler and the nights getting longer but she didn't mind. She loved the wind in her hair and the darkness, the only light coming from the gibbous moon above her.

Walking away from the lights of the mansion she sat down on the grass and just opened her senses to the night.

Rogue was very relaxed and so she didn't sense the approaching person until he was almost right on top of her.

Rogue's eyes snapped open and she had a glowing ball of energy in her right hand, pulled back and ready to release.

"Sorry if I startled you." Murmured Joseph looking abashed.

Rogue let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding and let the energy fade. She also floated down when she realised that she had automatically hovered to gain height on her possible attacker.

"It's okay Joseph. I guess I'm still not good at being snuck up on." She smiled self-deprecatingly.

"It is understandable Rogue."

"What are you doing out here?" she asked, moving to stand beside the man.

He shrugged "I guess I am doing a bit of soul searching. Trying to find out who I am. As a person I mean. I have had little time to establish myself and I do not feel right. I feel like a pathetic facsimile of a person. A copy. I suppose that is what I am. The Professor thinks I might be a clone."

"So? Just because you are a clone doesn't make you less important." Rogue grabbed his hand and pulled him to face her. "You are just as much of a person as I am. And just as important. You feel and remember. You are also good inside. I can see it. And I think it's a pity that more people don't know. You may have the powers of Magneto but you are nothing like him. You are good! Remember that."

Joseph smiled. "Thank you, Rogue. I needed to hear that."

Rogue shrugged and smiled gently "It was no trouble. Now, if you don't mind, I think I will head back inside to stop my boyfriend from ripping off my old classmates."

With a squeeze she dropped his hand and walked away.

Joseph watched her go with an indefinable expression on his face.


	5. A million dollars and world peace?

**AN: Well I hope you guys like this one. It was very hard for me to write. Except the end. That was easy as I am in full bitter harpy mode right now (blame my stupid fucker of an ex) **

**I own nothing except a sore back a ticklist saying that I finally passed my back summies after a year of getting better from my injuries. It's good to be back. **

**Song:** _What Sarah Said_ **-** Death Cab For Cutie **(I know it's depressing but it's just the mood I'm in)  
**

* * *

When Rogue reentered the mansion she was unable to find Remy. Wandering into the rec room she encountered Jubes, flipping through a magazine.

"Hey chica. What's up?"

Rogue shrugged. "Not much. I was just looking Remy. I thought he might be in here."

"Not seen him, sorry. You can come and chill with me for a bit if you want."

Rogue smiled and said "That would be great. I really miss you guys. Even if sometimes you were total pains!" They giggled and Rogue ambled to a nearby bookcase. Scanning the titles briefly she found an old favourite – _The Fifth Elephant_ by Terry Pratchett.

Tucking on leg underneath her, she curled up on the sofa next to Jubes.

Rogue was only a few chapters in when Remy walked in and leant over the sofa to press a kiss to Rogue's lips. He just so happened to glance over at Jubilee's magazine.

"Hey! Dat's Cathy!"

Both Rogue and Jubilee turned to look at him with quizzical expressions.

"How do you know her?" asked Jubilee

"Well dere was dis party and den I took her home and we-"

Rogue interrupted with "As much as a love hearing about your sexcapades, can we please just treat them like France and pretend they doesn't exist?"

Remy laughed before vaulting over the sofa to land next to Rogue. She let out a small squeak at his landing and swatted him on the thigh with her book. "Damn swamp rat!" He laughed and pulled her over for a kiss. "Y' love me really." He murmured, kissing her again.

"Ugh."

Remy and Rogue turned to look at Jubilee, who was staring at them with a disgusted expression on her face.

"You guys are so repulsively cute." She closed her magazine. "I'm leaving before I lose my dinner!"

She was at the door when she stopped and said "Oh, and by the way. You better not let Logan see such PDA!" before darting around the corner, giggling her little ass off.

Rogue rolled her eyes "Pfft. We are not cute."

"Oh we so are, Roguey-poo." Remy said, acting all saccharine sweet.

"Okay. Say that to me again and you're gonna be a eunuch." Rogue matched his tone easily.

"Yes ma'am." Remy saluted her smartly before quickly kissing her again and announcing "Gambit gotta do something. See ya later."

He was out of the room before Rogue could mutter anything more than "Um... Okay"

She shook her head at his antics. _'Crazy Cajun'_

* * *

Remy wandered off. He was planning on finding Logan to talk to him. First of all he wanted to know where the beer was, and Logan was definitely the man for that, and secondly he wanted to talk to him about Rogue. Logan was the closest thing Rogue had to a father/brother figure and he did not want to get on the bad side of those adamantium claws.

Wandering along the mansion's corridors, trying not to get lost, his brain began to tick over. It started thinking about Rogue in particular. And his feelings for her.

They were hard to describe. But he had never felt like this. Not even with Belle. With her it had been the lure of the forbidden. He had cared for her but... They just weren't right for each other.

But Rogue...

And then he had a light bulb moment.

He _loved_ her.

* * *

Later that night Rogue was surprised to hear a knock at her door. When she unlocked it with a flick of her wrist and said "Come in." She was shocked to see Remy burst into the room. Rogue jumped off the bed and said "What's wrong? What's happened?"

Remy didn't answer. He simply strode across the room and grabbed Rogue around the waist. She barely had time to see the fire in his eyes before his lips descended on hers.

Rogue gently pulled away, ignoring her rising lust, and repeated "What's wrong?"

Remy's oh so wonderful hands started to move – making circular motions at the base of her spine before slitting up to caress her bra strap. Rogue wasn't sure if she was glad that she was wearing a thin tank top or not...

"Nuthin'. I jus' realised somethin' and needed you to know"

His hands stopped moving and settled at her hips. She felt his fingers clench for a moment and then relax.

"Rogue. Je t'aime. I love you."

Rogue was gobsmacked. Of all the things he could have said he had to...

"Remy-"

He cut her off with a finger to her lips. He quickly replaced the solitary finger with his mouth. "Shh." He soothed as he pressed kisses to her mouth before moving down to her neck.

What Rogue was going to say faded from her lips as Remy started to suck on a pulse point in her neck.

Rogue got worried though when he started to slide down the spaghetti straps of her tank top. "Remy? Maybe we should stop for a moment..." But when he pinched a nipple through her bra... "Oooh... Or we could carry on."

She decided to take control as she suddenly realised that she knew what she wanted. After pushing off his trench coat she yanked up the plain black t-shirt.

It had looked amazing on – the way it contorted to every muscle. But it looked even better on the floor.

His lips met hers again and she moaned. His hands tightened on her hips briefly before moving around to cup her bottom and lifted her without apparent effort and began to kiss her in earnest. Ecstasy laced her bloodstream, a delicious pleasure she had no desire to resist.

Remy forced himself to pull away and pressed his forehead to hers, panting heavily.

Rogue murmured "Bed?" her emerald eyes flicking up to his hypnotic ones.

"Bed." He confirmed, striding over to the aforementioned object and gently depositing her. As she lay back on the sheets, he stood again to remove his jeans before moving back to the bed to help Rogue with her trousers.

She'd undone the button and all Remy had to do was pull them off. It wasn't sheer chance that her underwear came with them. He deposited them on the floor next to his with a dull thump. That done, he looked up to meet her eyes.

She smiled at him and gently placed her hand on the side of his face. Remy leant into it and closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them again the absolute trust in them made him feel so honoured to be able to give this to her.

"Tell me something, Rogue…" His voice was husky. He paused for a brief moment, making a conscious effort to keep all signs of his growing need out of his voice. "Tell me what you want."

She briefly considered the question before saying "A million dollars and world peace?" with a raised eyebrow and a snarky smile.

He raised an eyebrow at her and in retaliation he ran his hand up her side and back down again, making sure to brush the side of her breast and finally come to rest on her hip. Not far from where she wanted him most.

She moaned "You. Just you, Remy. Please."

It was her begging that was his undoing.

Crushing his lips to hers she grabbed his shoulders and pulled him closer, trying not to drown under the overload of sensation. Even after she had gotten control she had avoided men. The few, brief interactions usually ended up with them trying to cop a feel and her punching them in the face.

But this was different. Remy was almost reverent in the way he handled her, his talented hands moving over her, playing her like an instrument. Remy was a rare virtuoso and knew exactly which spots to press when.

Rogue bit down softly on his lower lip before whispering "You have no idea how much I want you." into his mouth.

He pulled up to search her eyes one last time. But he couldn't help being distracted by how deliciously rumpled she looked.

Shaking his head to dispel the very naughty thoughts of what he was planning on doing to Rogue later, he settled himself more firmly between her legs.

Remy pushed slowly into Rogue, letting her assimilate the impact of his entry into her body, the stretch of unused muscles, the pain that hurt oh so good.

When he was fully sheathed, he paused, allowing her to draw breath. He began to pull out with slow deliberation, drawing out the sensations she was feeling to the fullest.

She was almost beyond thought right now, she was a being of pleasure, focusing only on the feelings Remy stoked inside of her.

The last logical piece of Remy's brain was focused on taking it easy as she was new to it. But that logical piece sat back, folded its arms and went 'Fuck it' when Rogue's desire soaked moan filled the air and she tried to move her hips to encourage him to move faster.

Soon there was just the slick motion of body against body and then the luxuriant explosion into ecstasy.

The last thing Rogue remembered was thinking that this was the best night of her life and that she'd made the right decision. She was so glad she didn't regret it.

* * *

Remy was still asleep the next morning when she awoke. She smiled at his sleeping form, his tousled hair and the ever present smirk.

Sliding silently out of bed she quietly dressed before slipping out of the room. Checking the time she realised that they were leaving on their trip in about 5 hours. Rogue shrugged before heading to the dining room.

It wasn't so early that there was no one up, but the dining room was emptier than usual. She saw Jubilee at a far table, and after grabbing a simple breakfast of juice and a chocolate croissant she joined her friend.

When she sat down Jubilee turned her head to smile and say 'Good morning' but the greeting died on her lips.

Rogue turned to find Jubilee staring at her as if she had grown another limb.

Suddenly she gasped and pointed at Rogue "You got some!"

Rogue was in shock "What the fuck?"

"Omg you totally did! How was it? I bet he was amazing!"

Shaking her head at Jubilee's worrying knowledge she said "I don't know what you are talking about."

Jubilee wasn't placated by this remark.

"Stop bullshitting me, Rogue. You are so full of it!"

Rogue finally give in and blurted out "Ok, okay! It was absolutely amazing. Phenomenal, outstanding, a religious experience. Baby angels popped out of our asses and sang. Happy?"

Jubilee grinned and said "Of course."

Rogue shook her head again and got back to her breakfast.

* * *

Rogue, Remy, Betsy and Logan were loading the bunch of the year round students onto the bus a few hours later. They were heading to a mutant convention in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Several of them were moaning about the DR session that Logan had run after the capture the flag episode.

The last few people were getting on the bus as Joseph came sprinting out. Rogue paused with her foot on the first step before removing it and turning to face the man hurrying across the dew stained grass.

"Rogue!" he called when he was near enough. She simply rolled her eyes impatiently and waited for him to run the last few metres.

"The Professor suggested that I come with you. He says that he knows someone there who could help me."

Rogue sighed, glancing in at Remy who was staring at them. She knew they didn't get on but it the Professor said... Well she couldn't disagree.

Motioning for Joseph to get on ahead of her, she followed, arriving just in time to hear the end of Betsy's safety briefing.

"-and anyone wishing to complain to wishing to complain to Mr. Logan about injuries sustained during yesterday's field expedition will, I'm afraid, be wasting his or her time."

There were a chorus of groans and Rogue saw Logan's mouth twitch into almost a smile.

Then she was suddenly jerked down by a hand on her wrist.

Remy.

He was really mad. She'd even go as far as saying apoplectically so.

"What's he doin' here?"

Rogue shrugged sheepishly "Proff wants him to come."

Gambit's eyes were almost glowing and she noticed him start to clench and unclench his hands – a habit he had picked up from her.

She grabbed the aforementioned hands and sat down more fully on the seat next to him. the bus started to move as Rogue leaned up to place her mouth next to his.

"Nothin's gonna happen, okay? If he tries anything I'll throw him through a wall." She pressed a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth.

There was no response.

Rogue sighed and began to pull away before starting to get up. Maybe she would sit with Logan. She'd not spent enough time with him and she had always enjoyed listening to his stories.

Remy's hand flashed out again, grabbing her and pulling her down. He then proceeded to wrap his arms around her waist and press his face into her neck .

"'M sorry chère. 'm jus worried 'bout y'. I don' trust him and de way he's always follwin' you around like a little lost puppy." She wrapped her arms around his neck and started to play with his hair.

It's okay, Remy. You don' need to worry about him."

He pulled back to look at her with an something unreadable in his eyes. "I hope so chère. I hope so."

* * *

After far too many hours on the bus and Logan threatening that the next person to use their powers would have early morning DR sessions for a week, they arrived at a hotel.

At one of the toilet stops Remy and Rogue had swapped places and now Rogue was asleep, leaning on the window. Before waking her Remy took the time to study her sleeping face. One hand was keeping her face off the window and the other was curled under her chin.

She looked so vulnerable. Like one big hit would shatter her.

Remy shook his head and cleared his throat before he leant over to ghost a kiss over Rogue's cheek. "Rogue?" he placed one hand on her shoulder. "Chère?" she began to slowly stir. Her eyes opened and then focused on Remy. "Hiya stranger" she murmured, her voice still thick with sleep. She smiled at him and stretched before accepting Remy's proffered hand "We're here?"

"Oui. And I know how to get us a double room." He smiled before leaping out of the bus in order to help her down the oh so treacherous steps.

Rogue smiled at the cuteness. "Really? How do you plan to do that without Logan skewering you?"

Remy laughed at that before wrapping an arm around her waist and walking with her towards the large hotel. It was a newish building on the outside but on the inside it was very homey and welcoming. There was a roaring fire in a fireplace and hot apple cider available from a dispenser at reception.

"'M workin' on it." He murmured as they reached Logan, Betsy and Joseph surrounded by the children, all talking at once and very excited to be out of the mansion.

Rogue had never been so thankful that this was a mutant friendly hotel when a porter said "Hello little one. I love your shirt, it makes you look very pretty." to Sarah. She had always been slightly nervous about her obvious bony growths but she almost glowed at the praise. Sarah started talking back to the woman about how her friend had got it for her birthday and that she liked the lady's shirt too.

Remy meanwhile and slipped next to Logan. "If y' want... Y' can start handing out the keys for these ones and get them up to bed and I'll sort out the teachers?"

Logan was slightly suspicious but he and Betsy were too frazzled to care much. They dutifully started ushering the children into lifts.

Remy then leaned on the desk and sent a dazzling smile towards the receptionist. "Can we please have three single rooms and a double?"

She nodded, slightly stunned before handing over the keys.

Remy sauntered back over to Rogue. "Logan and Betsy will be on one floor with half the munchkins. You, me and Mags over there"he said making a thumbing motion at Joseph"Will be on another."

Rogue looked at him blankly before she got it. "Remy LeBeau. You are so evil and I love it! That's a brilliant plan. Let me guess... You're gonna tell Wolvie that you and Joseph are sharing a room?"

Remy smiled and nodded. "Cept y' need to do me a favour. Persuade _him_ to back me up."

Tilting her head to one side, Rogue looked at Remy a little sceptically. "You're kidding right?"

"Malheureusement, but no." Remy shrugged at her. She punched him lightly on the shoulder and stalked past him, muttering "You owe me."

"Hey Joseph. I've got your key here." Joseph turned at the sound of her voice and gave her a wide smile. "Ah. Thank you Rogue. That is most kind of you."

Rogue smiled back at the warmth in his tone. "It's no problem. I do need a favour though."

Here Joseph looked a mixture of concerned and intrigued. "Of course. What may I assist you with?"

"Could ya tell Logan and you and Remy are sharing? We're only staying one night so I doubt he's gonna do a smell check. And if he does I'll just say that I popped in to say good night. So is that okay with you?"

Throughout Rogue's explanation Joseph's face had gotten darker and more angry. "No! It is not okay. Why on Earth do you want to be with that lying thief?"

Rogue was pissed off. "Hey! That is out of order. You have no right to talk about like that!"

Joseph raised an eyebrow "Oh really? So he told you why he really came to university then?"

That stopped Rogue cold. "W-what do you mean? He came to study of course."

"Really? Name one time you have seen Remy go to class or do some homework or stress about finals." Pressured Joseph.

Rogue opened her mouth to automatically reply but then a little part of her brain held up a sign. She closed her mouth when she realised that he was right.

"See! He only came here to get to you."

Rogue couldn't believe it... But all the evidence supported him. She turned to Remy.

"Rems. What is he talking about?"

She didn't know what to feel when he refused to look at her.


	6. Take Me To Your Leader

**AN: All recognisable quotes belong to the respective authors. Yes I used Zombieland and Despicable Me. But only because I looked up the fluffy bit on youtube and watched it about 50 times in a row. And it was still funny. **

**Anyway. I have been told that slower updating is more preferable so you have your wish. Hope you enjoy this one. The third chapter in a row that is over 3K words. **

**WARNING: Most of this chapter will be painful for Romy fans. Oh and any woman that has been fucked over by the love of her life will empathise with the love/hate feeling that Rogue has. It's impossible to descirbe but once you've felt it, you never forget it.  
**

**Song: **_Georgia_ **- **Carolyn Dawn Johnson

* * *

"What does he mean, Remy?" Rogue said again.

"Chère. Let me explain." Remy tried to get through to her before Joseph pushed him further into the giant pile of shit he had made of everything.

Joseph interrupted him with "What is there to explain? He lied to you. He made you fall in love with him. And for what? He's just going to sell you down the river!"

Rogue stared at Remy. "Is that true?"

"No! Well... some of it." He moved towards her and tried to grab her hand but she just backed away, a pained expression on her face. He sighed._ 'Here goes nothing'_ he thought.

"I was sent here to keep an eye on you. But it was also to protect you. Well partially." He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself down. It wasn't going well. " I tol' you 'bout me bein' a t'ief but 'm also part of de N'awlins T'ieves Guild. We are at war with a rival guild and one of our members heard about y' and y' powers." Here he looked slightly sheepish. "I was sent to 'acquire' you for our side."

Her face became stony so he tried a different tactic. "Look. At first, it was jus' orders. I couldn' say no. But den... Den I fell in love. An' de orders, dey didn' matter no more. Please. Y' gotta believe me..." he trailed off, anxiously waiting her reaction.

She whirled around and stormed outside. Remy ran after her and managed to grab her a few feet away from the hotel.

"I trusted you..." She whispered, still in shock.

Then her voice grew " I trusted you!" she shouted.

"Rogue, please!" He tried to grab hold of her arms.

"NO!" she screamed and shoved him off. He stumbled and fell to the ground and from there he watched as a goddess raged. "Get away from me! I hate you!"

The air crackled with electricity as Rogue clutched her head. She started to lose control. All the psyches in her were clamouring, shouting random sentences at her, some were trying to take over. She couldn't take it anymore.

Rogue took off vertically and suddenly and didn't stop flying until she spotted a 747 flying a hundred metres above her.

When she had collected her thoughts she started to force the psyches back, with Carol's help. When they were all gone she curled up into a ball in mid air and tried not to cry.

_'He tried to change...'_ Carol murmured, trying to get through to her. Her sorrow was overwhelming. The time she had opened herself up completely, she had her heart ripped out and crushed like so much meaningless pottery.

On the ground Logan and Betsy came running out. "What happened? Where's Rogue?" Shouted Betsy over the growing wind.

Suddenly it dropped and the air was eerily still.

Logan turned to Remy and grabbed him by his lapels "What did you do?" he growled, getting in Remy's face.

"I told her de truth. I tol' her somet'ing I should have told her a long time ago. "

He opened his mouth to fully explain when he hear a 'zip' sound and felt something hit his neck. He put his hand up and felt a dart of some sort. There was a moment of dizziness before his metabolism got rid of the drug in his system.

Logan then heard two more 'zip' sounds and he saw Betsy stumble and fall at the same time another dart hit him. He roared in anger and unsheathed his claws, turning, trying to find the hidden enemies in the brush and sparse trees.

Several more 'zip' sounds were heard and both Remy and Logan grunted with their impact.

Logan tried to weakly fight off the oncoming unconsciousness before he too succumbed to the drugs.

Remy thanked his lucky stars that he had a high metabolism. This totally makes up for not being able to get drunk.

But this time when the brief dizziness hit he found himself surrounded by soldiers. "Well dis is a change. Normally it's us who are sneakin' up on de bad guys." He murmured before turning to the enemy. "Any of y' wanna see a card trick?" he asked, smoothly pulling a pack of cads from his pocket.

But before he had a chance to do anything with them a power inhibitor collar was placed around his neck and this time when they injected him with a sedative he immediately passed out.

Rogue heard Logan's roar and guessed that Remy had told him what he said to her.

She was torn between going down to stop Logan killing the Cajun and letting that mendacious, lying, backstabbing thief suffer.

However, when she heard a helicopter start up she got curious.

Zooming down at high speed she arrived just in time to see men (well maybe women but then again she wasn't too concerned about being sexist to the enemy) carrying Logan, Betsy and Remy into the helicopter.

Her first impulse would be to fly down there, rip that helicopter open like a tin can and rescue everyone, but her inner Logan stayed her hand. _'Ya don't know how powerful they are and who they are after. They managed to take down two experienced X-Men and a trained thief, who knows what they've got up their sleeves. They also might be after the little 'uns after taking out the big dogs.'_

Logan was right. So Rogue flew back to the hotel, pulling out her cell phone on the way. Whooshing up the stairs she quickly banged on the door of Rusty Collins. He could turn his whole body into flames and when he manifested he accidently burned a woman. He was almost arrested but luckily got away. His parents disowned him and so he was stuck in the mansion year round. He was one of the more responsible kids.

She started dialling the Professor's number as she waited for him to answer the door.

Rusty poked his head around the door and smiled when he saw Rogue.

"Hi Miss Rogue. What-" She held up a finger and whispered "Get everyone out of their rooms and into the hall I need to speak to them-" she started to speak normally when the Professor picked up. "Hi Professor. We have a problem."

* * *

"No! No fucking way! I am NOT staying here!" shouted Rogue.

Scott was so happy that she had never absorbed Banshee because then he couldn't say that the Mansion would still be standing.

"Rogue." He tried again.

"No! Logan is out there and people are doing God knows what to him! If it was me out there he'd already have left, whether or not y'all were coming!"

"Rogue." Interrupted the Professor as he wheeled into the War Room.

After Rogue had called him Storm, Cyclops, Bobby, Kitty and Kurt had been dispatched to bring the children back in the Blackbird and to see if any other clues could be found. Now the whole team was gathered in the War Room and discussing who was going to leave as soon as possible to rescue the three missing X-Men. _'Well... Two X-Men and a lying traitor'_ thought Rogue bitterly.

"You need to stay here. You are only one person, albeit with a lot of firepower, but if you get hurt or captured then our main line of attack is gone. If we bring many people then we will have a better chance. Also, with your powers, if someone attacks the mansion when we are gone then you can evacuate all the children to the Danger Room and defend them. You would do a better job here."

Rogue opened her mouth to answer back but then she realised that he was right.

She closed her mouth and slumped down onto a chair as she stared into space and let the other's talking pass over her. All she could think of was that, even though she hated Remy, she still loved him. And that the last thing she said to him was "I hate you"

* * *

"Well Cajun, you've really outdone yourself." Betsy's disembodied voice floated into Remy's cell.

He was currently chained to a wall in a cell with a built in power inhibitor field.

"Yep. This has got to be up there with 'Greatest cock ups of the 21st century'" Remy rolled his eyes at Logan's tone. He was still pissed about Remy hurting Rogue, Remy could tell.

"Well what y' want Gambit to do?" asked Remy, exasperated.

"Oh I don't know." Mused Betsy in a thoughtful voice. "Maybe get us out of here?" Betsy was obviously a little angry too.

Logan sighed. It was just his luck to be stuck in the middle of those two.

Their bellyaching was cut short by the entry of a man, accompanied by soldiers.

Logan glared at him, judging by his uniform and the way the other soldiers acted towards him that this guy was high up, if not in charge.

"Ah my specimens." His voice was melodic and almost pleasant to listen to. But it had an undertone which could turn it nasty in a heartbeat. "How was your trip? And are you enjoying your accommodations?" he asked with a patronising smirk.

"Dey're exquisite. It I didn' know better I would have t'ought we were in de Hilton." Replied Remy, using every bit of snark and sarcasm he could. Rogue would be proud.

The man chuckled. "I'm glad you have spirit. It will make breaking you that much more enjoyable. But it is not you that I want." He wandered off, out of sight and Logan, using his superior senses, guessed that he stopped outside Betsy's cell.

There was silence.

It was broken by the man, his voice now one of fury and hatred.

"What is this?"

One of the men stepped forward, his boots clacking loudly, saluted and said "Sir! Here is the mutant girl you ordered us to capture." He stamped his foot and saluted before stepping back.

There was a loud crash. "You idiots! This is not The Rogue. This is nothing like her!"

"But sir... she has streaks and she was with the devil and the animal."

Logan rolled his eyes and muttered "Why every other word out of someone's mouth to me is 'animal'?"

Another crash. Some of the men scurried into view, obviously scampering out of the way of their leader's temper.

"Go." His voice was low and deadly. "Go and get my mutant!" his voice rose into a shout and the men ran off.

The leader moved back into Logan's line of sight and he could see that the man's face was calm.

"I will return, my pets. Then we will have some fun.

He walked off and Remy felt his stomach drop through his toes. Psylocke summed it up perfectly:

"We're screwed."

* * *

Babysitting blows. Majorly. ALL the X-Men had gone. All of them! Except her. The only ones left behind were the kiddies. Oh and Joseph. But she was busy pretending he didn't exist.

Rogue sighed. It was official. She closed her eyes and allowed her head to drop back.

She was bored.

Deathly bored in fact.

So bored that she was about to crack and start eating the furniture.

She was awoken from her musings on how bored one would have to be before they died by one of the younger children. She was no more than five or six and had lovely fairy-like wings. The girl tugged on Rogue's trouser leg as Rogue leant on the counter in the spacious kitchen.

Rogue opened her eyes and looked down to see a wobbling bottom lip and large eyes that were starting to fill with tears.

"What's wrong Pixie?"

"I can't find my teddy." The little girl said, trying to hold back the tears.

Oh dear. It was her second worst nightmare come to life – crying children.

She looked panicked for a moment before hurrying to a cupboard in the utility room. Digging through the plastic bags full of toys she found a fluffy, white unicorn.

Pulling it out she showed it to Pixie and her eyes went as wide as saucers. "It's so fluffy I'm gonna die!" The little grabbed it and was halfway out the door before Rogue realised.

Pixie suddenly stopped and then turned and ran back to Rogue. She threw herself at the mutant with the platinum streaks, lifted by the gossamer wings on her back, and hugged her tightly. "Thank you Miss Rogue." Rogue smiled and gently wrapped her own arms around the girl.

Pixie fluttered off (literally) singing about unicorns and Rogue decided to wander to the rec room.

Leaning in the door way she watched as the children laughed and played and did things that children did. For some of them it had been too long since they got to be kids.

However the peaceful moment was shattered by an alarm going off.

Rogue sprang into action. "Okay. Everyone – into the Danger Room. Rahne, Amara check the floors and send people down. James, lead these guys and anyone else you see to the DR. I'll join you there shortly." She said calmly and quickly. Everyone calmed down when they saw someone taking charge but some of the little ones looked like they were about to pee themselves. She squatted down "Guys, it's okay. You just need to follow James, yeah? Just like we practised. Okay?" They nodded fearfully but dutifully followed Thunderbird.

Rogue waited long enough to see that everything was happening according to plan before teleporting into the War Room.

Scanning the monitors she saw soldiers in identical gear to the ones who took Logan, Betsy and Remy, sneaking over the wall and across the gardens.

Typing furiously she launched a few counter attacks in the shape of hidden turrets in the lawn and random mines. They wouldn't hold them off for long but it might buy her a little more time. Rogue then proceeded to teleport into all the major areas. Main hall – empty. Kitchen – empty. Library, rec room. All empty.

She sighed before teleporting down to the Danger Room. There she found the older students, some only a little younger than her, calming the youngest students and keeping them occupied.

Everyone went silent at her appearance. Most of them weren't here when Rogue left but stories had remained. Also her epic battle with Ares had set the standard for 'not-to-be-fucked-with'.

"Computer. Scan the mansion for mutants outside the Danger Room." Called Rogue, thankful for Forge's new updates.

The computer replied "Scanning." and then Joseph ran up to her.

Rogue was busy trying to see if there was anyone missing and so said, distractedly "I'm busy. Can I ignore you some other time?"

Joseph opened his mouth to say something but it was at that time when the computer replied. "One mutant. Name: Megan Gwynn. Codename: Pixie. Location: Main Hall."

Rogue was about to start cursing like a sailor but when she saw the younger kid's faces all staring up at her she decided not to.

Gritting her teeth she turned to Joseph. "I'm going after Pixie. You are to stay here and defend these kids at all costs. I'll be back soon."

With that she teleported out of the Danger Room and into the Main Hall. Where she was met with an unpleasant sight.

A masked man was holding Megan with one hand and her 'it's-so-fluffy-I'm-gonna-die' unicorn with the other. Pixie wasn't too bothered about the man – she just wanted her unicorn back.

The man handed Pixie and the unicorn to a colleague and pulled down his mask. Underneath was an almost handsome man and he smiled at her welcomingly.

"You must be Rogue." He stated still smiling.

Rogue was clenching and unclenching her hands. Automatically she had started to lean forward, ready to attack the men who were threatening the lives of the children. She may hate the fuckers when they cry but that doesn't mean she wouldn't give her life to keep them safe.

"I'm gonna say this nicely. Please leave." She responded in an even tone. Going against her instincts, she relaxed he hands and settled into a more neutral pose.

She then lifted a hand and pretended to pick at her nails before sending the soldiers a bored glance "Well I don't usually make it a habit to beat the snot outta some people who obviously got mental problems, but you couldn't have picked a day where I felt less sympathetic."

The man laughed at her. "You may be The Rogue but you couldn't fight all of us."

"Wanna bet?" Rogue smiled nastily.

"And even if you could-" the man carried on "You wouldn't. Want to know why? Because we have something you don't."

"A death wish?" asked Rogue, dryly.

"Nope. This." He gestured for Pixie to be brought forward again. "You attack us-" he drew his pistol and aimed it at the small girl who was momentarily distracted from her unicorn thoughts. "And we shoot her. Come quietly and we'll let her go and leave all the others alone. Do we have a deal?"

Rogue looked at Pixie and sighed, her head drooping.

"Deal."

The man smiled again, moving forward to place an inhibitor collar on her. "Try anything and we'll shoot the kid before she gets 3 feet." He then motioned for Pixie to be let go. The man handed her the unicorn and patted her on the head. "There now. You go on. Auntie Rogue and me are gonna have a little chat. Okay?"

Pixie frowned at him. "She's not my Aunt and I'm not an idiot." She kicked him the shins before fluttering over to Rogue. Ignoring the man who was curisng profusely behind her, Rogue crouched and hugged Pixie tightly and whispered "Tell the others what happened. They're in the DR."

The man interrupted their moment with a "I'm waiting." Rogue and Pixie had a simultaneous eye roll before Pixie scuttled off, still clutching her unicorn.

Rogue stood to her full height and raised her head. "Take me to your leader."


	7. Male chauvinistic pigs

**AN: 1:30am. Can't sleep. Managed to get the next two chapters written. They'll be up in a few days. Hope others are sleeping better than me.**

**Song: **_Soldier _**- **Destiny's Child**  
**

_Meanwhile..._

"We've tracked Logan, Betsy and Remy to this base here." Said Cyclops as he pointed at a diagram which was being projected onto a back wall.

John raised his hand "How did we track them?"

Kitty interrupted with a smirk "Let's just say that someone is rather good at hacking into satellites. I used the latest pictures and the direction that the helicopter took to find that there is an old 'abandoned' military base out in the middle of nowhere. A little digging later and I found some news that it had been taken over by an organisation called 'Salter's Testing'. A little more digging and it turned out that this was a dummy company. For HYDRA."

Beast gulped audibly and Cyclops quickly called the attention of the gathered X-Men back to him.

"We will attack like so." He said as the diagram zoomed in to show the floor plans. He tapped three spots and red dots appeared there. "Jubilee, Beast, Pyro and I will attack from here, at the main entry. Nightcrawler, Colossus, Bobby and Kitty will attack from here." He tapped another spot "And Angel, Storm, Cannonball and Thunderbird will take this entrance." Cyclops tapped the final spot and looked up. "Any questions?"

He looked around but everyone seemed pretty content. John spoke up with "There do not seem to be any questions, oh fearless leader."

Cyclops rolled his eyes in amusement before replying "They're a fine lot. Storm?" He called to the Weather witch who was flying the plane "What's our ETA?"

Storm glanced back briefly "About 30 seconds." She faced forward again and smiled to herself as she heard the rest of the team scramble to get ready. Calling on the elements she conjured a fog to give them some cover.

The X-Men were making the final preparations before their assault when they landed.

"Good luck everyone." Called Cyclops as the ramp opened. Separating smoothly into their teams as if they'd done it a thousand times, the three groups set off for their designated attack space.

Beast bounded along ahead and wondered why there were so few guards. It was the sort of thing one thought before one realised that it was a trap and one was set upon by a large group of them...

But nothing happened.

Arriving near the entrance Pyro spotted a sole guard standing by the door. The four of them ducked down behind a low brick wall and Cyclops decided to comment on the lack of guards. "Surely there's more than just one guy guarding the front door?"

Jubilee smiled "I'm not sure whether to be happy about it as that means no one knows we're here, or worried because in a minute we're probably going to be in deep doo-doo."

Using his communicator Scott checked in with the other teams. They were all in position and also remarked on the lack of guards. "Wait for my mark." Said Cyclops as he motioned Beast forward.

Using all his speed and agility Beast bounded forward, taking the guard by surprise. The poor guy managed to reach for the walkie-talkie at his belt but never managed to get a message across because a large furry man said "Sorry my friend." Before lifting him up with one hand, breaking the communicator with the other and then knocking the poor bastard out.

Waving a giant furry hand, Dr McCoy motioned for the rest of the mini team to come forwards. Scott spoke quickly into his communicator as he ran: "Teams 2 and 3 go! Meet at the cells."

John melted the lock (and half the door but he pretended not to notice) and the friends stepped inside, cautiously.

Looking up at a nearby wall Jubilee smiled and nudged John. When he turned to look at her she simply pointed. Cyclops noticed and came to look as well.

YOU ARE HERE. The sign announced in big letters. There was also a handy diagram showing where the cells were.

"These anti-mutant groups get dumber and dumber every time." Cyclops muttered as he led his team towards the cells.

It was sheer bad luck that after rounding the next corner they came face to face with four other guards.

Cyclops smirked and step forwards "I think you have something that belongs to us."

Pyro flicked open his lighter as he said "Short lil fella."

Jubilee flashed a brilliant smile as she also moved next to Cyclops "All adamantium and attitude. One of a kind. We'd like him BACK."

Beast held up a finger "And don't forget our Japanese-by-way-of-Britain Ninja warrior. You can imagine how hard THEY are to replace!"

"And I suppose we want the Cajun too. If only so Rogue can beat him up and we can sit back and laugh at him." Mused Pyro.

Jubilee grinned as she shot fireworks in the eyes of the guards; Beast leapt into the middle of them and grabbed two before knocking their heads together, cartoon style. Scott shot one with his optic beams (at stun of course, this is _Scott_ we're talking about) and Pyro was about to burn one when Jubilee stepped in and kicked the final guard in the gut before sweeping him off his feet and punching him in the face as he fell.

The three men looked at her in shock.

"What?" Asked Jubilee defensively, folding her arms. "You think Rogue is the only girl who knows how to fight? Or are you just surprised that little ol' me managed to take someone down?"

She stalked off without waiting for an answer, muttering about "male chauvinistic pigs." under her breath.

She walked around the corner and they heard her shout "Guys! I found them! Score two for the girls!"

* * *

Beast quickly got to work disabling the power inhibitors while the rest of the teams caught up. As soon as they arrived Bobby, Neal and John set to work breaking open the locks, each using their powers.

"Take your time, boys. It's not like we're going anywhere." Commentated Betsy dryly.

"Done!" said Beast, joyfully as the boys finished melting or freezing the lock mechanisms and broke them open with solid kicks.

Jubilee ran into Logan's cell, Warren into Betsy's and when he noticed no one was going to help Remy, Sam sighed and went to help the Cajun thief.

Minutes later the six X-Men appeared and were carefully checked over by Beast.

Logan pushed him away and said "We're fine. No one managed to do anything to us."

Cyclops nodded and Storm said "Well if there is nothing more for us to do then we should head back to the jet. I am sure that Rogue is feeling nervous about being left at home."

That made Remy feel a little better. When no one had come rushing into his cell to either kill him or make sure he was okay, he had been a little worried. But now he was more nervous about returning home and seeing Rogue. What would she do? She'd probably incinerate him before he got a chance to explain everything...

* * *

Just as the Blackbird was taking off from the HYDRA base Rogue was at an airstrip a few miles away. After giving herself up an inhibitor collar was positioned around her neck and then she was loaded into a jeep. She also had cuffs on her hands and ankles. The cuffs were new additions as she had managed to give one guard a split lip (punch to the face); another got a black eye (kick to the face) and several more a mixture of testicular torsion and bruises. (They had underestimated her knees and elbows.)

The guards thought that their bosses were insane as they loaded the prisoner onto the helicopter. She bit and spat at anyone who came too close and generally made their job as impossible and unpleasant as she could.

As the guards had strict instructions not to hurt her all they could do was get her strapped down in the helicopter and then get out of range.

As the helicopter took off smoothly, Rogue looked out the window trying to see any landmarks and memorise the way they took her. If she escaped she'd probably end up flying along a similar route.

The journey didn't take long but for her it felt like a hundred years. How were the kids? What was happening at the mansion? Had the X-Men returned? Did they get everyone back safely? What was happening to that lying Cajun? Had Logan sliced him into confetti yet?

All these questions, and more, ran around her head like little people. Confused and lost little people. It was like having her psyches back out in her brain instead of tucked away in a little soundproof pocket.

She didn't realise she had closed her eyes while trying to calm down but they snapped open when she felt the jolt of the landing. The leader of the guards was called over by some of the others and they talked in low tones.

Well that was until the leader started shouting some colourful swearwords that even Rogue hadn't heard of.

He whipped out a cell phone as he ran his fingers over his buzz cut head. Rogue could just hear him now but the wind look away some of the words.

"Yes Sir... Yes but there... much left... seems to be little damage... we'll put her... Thank you sir. See you... few hours sir."

He snapped the phone shut smartly before giving out orders in low tones. Frustrated, Rogue sat back and started to examine her manacles. She didn't manage to deduce a way out of them before more guards came. This time these ones put guns to her head.

Obviously they didn't like her attitude.

She wisely kept quiet and complacent as they lead her through a melted and burnt door. _'Pyro'_ Thought Rogue. _'The other X-Men must be free!'_ This gave her some joy but then her good mood deflated slightly. She was looking forward to having some friends while she was imprisoned.

After being thrown, unceremoniously, in a cell and the door locked she began to plot. The door was a simple one – just a lock. But then she had to get out past the guards.

No pressure then.

She sighed.

There didn't seem to be any way to get out of here. At least not without her powers or external assistance.

It was late, she realised with a yawn. Curling up on the cold cement floor, she tried to get some sleep. Who knew what would happen to her?

* * *

The X-Men arrived back at the mansion and found the front door open.

"This is most disturbing." Commentated Beast as he cautiously poked his head around.

The sound of Logan sniffing caught everyone's attention.

"Soldiers. Many of them." More sniffing. "Rogue was here too. But none of the munchkins."

Storm sighed in relief. As the Professor was in Washington for a very important hearing her and Scott we left in charge. She could only imagine the Professor's reaction if she managed to lose the entire student population.

"We told her to put them in the DR if something happened. Nightcrawler – go down there and check it out."

Kurt saluted smartly and *bamphed* out. A few seconds later he reappeared. With Joseph.

"The children vere in ze Danger Room. But Joseph can tell you more."

All attention was turned to the doppelganger. "They took Rogue."

There was utter silence. But it was broken by one of the most terrifying noises know to man.

Logan's 'I'm-about-to-eviscerate-everyone-in-a-five-metre-radius' growl.

"What. Did. You. Say?" asked Logan slowly and calmly, which was, oddly, scarier than him shouting.

"The soldiers. They threatened the children and so Rogue gave herself up-mmph!"

Joseph squeaked in terror as he found himself being hoisted in the air and slammed against a wall. Then a rather hairy face was a little too close to his.

"And you did NOTHING?" Logan yelled, starting to lose his temper.

Storm stepped in. "Logan. Calm down. Shouting will not solve anything. There is a situation and we must plan to deal with it. Now everyone needs to get a grip. Rogue is out there and it is our duty to help her. But we cannot do it right now." She dictated calmly, taking control.

"Why not?" Logan dropped Joseph and advanced on a new target.

Storm looked at him coolly "Because we have already run a mission today. It is late and people are tired. Going out again would be suicide. Now back down!" the last sentence was imbued with all the power of the storm.

So Logan shut up.

Of course he knew, deep down, that she was right. But he hated the thought of Rogue being stuck, all alone in a prison cell. And being experimented on-

He cut off that line of thought right there. It would do Rogue no good if he fell apart.

He just didn't want what happened to him to happen to her.


	8. Breeding, darling Top class breeding

**AN: Main author's note is at the bottom. I didn't want to spoil the action.**

**Song: **_Diary of Jane _**- **Breaking Benjamin

**

* * *

**

"Am I late to the party?" came a voice from the front door.

The X-Men spun round, all getting ready to do some major ass kicking.

But instead they found a woman dressed in skimpy white clothes with bright blonde hair.

Logan retracted his claws and straightened up. "Emma Frost. How lovely to see you again."

Emma grinned widely "You too, darling. Now what's this about you losing my friend?"

Cyclops' eyes widened behind his visor and he stepped forward "Hold on a minute. One, what do you want here? Two, what gives you the right to just stroll in here and start sticking your nose in. And three who do you mean?"

Emma watched Cyclops rant with an amused expression and one cocked eyebrow. "Feel better now that you've got all that off your chest?" He opened his mouth again and she held up a hand "But I will answer your questions." She held up one perfectly manicured hand and started counting off her fingers. "One, I want to help." One finger went down. "Two, you idiots put my friend in danger. That's when it became my business." Another finger. "And three, I mean Rogue, of course!"

Kitty frowned at her and said "What makes you such a bitch, _Emma_?" She said her name like it was a dirty word.

Emma smiled "Breeding, darling. Top class breeding."

Logan growled and interrupted the little stare down. "You don't owe Rogue anything. So thanks for stopping by, we'll let her know you popped in. See ya." He started making shooing motions as he started walking towards her.

Suddenly, he was stopped. He couldn't move. And the rest of the X-Men watched in awe as he lifted off the ground, stuck in the position of one foot forward. He looked like a statue. Except for his frantically moving eyes.

Emma stood there with one hand up and a bored expression. She even went as far as to exaggeratedly yawn and cover her mouth with one hand while the other held Logan in place.

"Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Easy way – you let me help you get Rogue and everyone goes away happy. Hard way – you get in my way and I save Rogue on my own. Then the two of us leave and never see you again. Judging by the tortured expressions on some people's faces I say that the second option is less appealing?"

Storm held up her hands and tried to diffuse the tense situation. "Emma. Please let Logan go. You may help us rescue Rogue." At the outraged and shocked expressions of her team mates she shrugged and said "She's powerful and knows her stuff. We need her."

Emma dropped Logan with a gesture and strode towards the group, her heels clacking on the marble floor. She stood, hands on hips, the paragon of confidence. "When do we leave?"

* * *

Rogue was unceremoniously awakened by an air horn the next morning. Blearily blinking at the fluorescent lights in her underground cell, she espied a man in a neater form of the uniform the guards wore. Also the fact that there was no helmet, just a hat, and no gun gave her the clue that he was the big boss. He was also the one with the air horn. That made him the enemy in her books.

As he handed the air horn to one of the grunts she managed to lift herself up slightly and managed to get into a sitting position. She sat there, stretching out the muscles that had stiffened after the night on a cold concrete floor whilst studiously ignoring the man in front of her.

He cleared his throat.

She linked her fingers and thrust her arms forward, still ignoring him.

He cleared his throat again.

Rolling her neck she looked everywhere but the man.

His throat clears were getting less and less subtle so she decided to humour him.

"Morning sunshine." She smiled at him widely, employing the secret "smile: it freaks people out" technique.

It seemed to be working because the man looked slightly nervous to see her so perky and happy. Whilst being in a cell. With her powers turned off. Under armed guard.

In fairness he recovered quickly. "You are The Rogue?" he asked with only a hint of scepticism.

She gave him a cheery wave and said "Hello."

The man snorted and said ""This is the Rogue?" He asked scornfully. "The Rogue is 6ft tall and the most feared mutant in the world! She can shoot thunderbolts from her eyes and it is said that no prison can hold her. You are just a little girl!"

Rogue smiled but her eyes turned deadly. "I shrank in my last hot bath. I most disheartened by it. And if I had my powers back then no prison could hold me. But you're men took the cowards way out. They didn't fight me like true soldiers. They hid behind a little girl. How pathetic!" her voice echoed the scorn and her face morphed into a frown, showing how she truly felt about the situation.

But in a heartbeat her facade was back up. "But enough about me. How was your night? Did you guys sleep okay?"

Always keep people on the back foot. It's easier to kick them in the nuts that way.

The guards looked freaked but the man in front of her remained very calm. Too calm.

She narrowed her eyes before leaping to her feet. She was pressing herself against the bars. Just because she had no powers didn't mean she was powerless. She was fast and agile. There was a reason she was one of the best fighters before she got her newer powers.

The soldiers jumped back in alarm and she heard multiple safeties click off. But she only had eyes for the man standing in front of her. "What do you want from me?" she murmured, for his ears only. "Why go to all this effort to get lil ol' me? Hmm?"

The man smiled. "You have very interesting DNA. We found some of your old files. I'm sure you remember that encounter in the military base? I believe you met a Miss Carol Danvers there.

Rogue's hands began to grip the bars. She tightened her hold on them so that her hands wouldn't shake. Now was not a time to betray any form of weakness. To make herself feel better she started to plan all the inventive ways she could kill him.

"Well we know them rather well. And when you escaped they let us know."

'_Drop something on his head. Something big. Like a satellite. That would hurt. And it would be embarrassing.'_

"They sent us your file. Complete with a set of your DNA. It's rather interesting. But I doubt you have an interest in biochemistry and Phosphate Sugar Base Pairings."

'_Lock him up and then invite small children to come mock him. And throw rotten fruit! Durian. Fruit – I remember it from Thailand. Smells REALLY bad when fresh. Imagine what it would be like rotten.._._'_

"So we decided to bring you in. Just to run some tests of course. But there is a mild side affect. The tests are going to hurt."

'_I could get a really big stick and stick it up his – wait what? Experimentation? Not again!'_

* * *

"Okay. Now I am willing to bet that they are going to move Rogue someplace else, as that facility is compromised. I've managed to narrow down the – what's so funny?" Cyclops broke off his presentation to glare daggers at Emma, who was sitting, legs crossed and chuckling.

"Oh Scott. I wish you would actually ask people before you set up a plan. Some of us may know things that you don't. For instance" she turned to the rest of the X-Men gathered "I know where they are heading and why." Manipulating the map she showed them an image of another facility. "This is Euphorion Industries. They are in charge of mass producing drugs that have been tested and are ready for the market. Or at least that's their official line. In fact it's another dummy company owned by HYDRA. It's where they take all their mutants for testing. The place you raided were glorified holding cells – a place where mutants would be sorted before shipping out to certain facilities. According to one of the guards who I just happened to run in to, they should be moving her right about now."

Cyclops, unhappy that his presentation had been interrupted and then hijacked was nevertheless pleased with this new information – it did make his job easier.

"Okay. So we will be attacking the convoy with Rogue inside. There will be fewer defences than at the base and if we pick our moment then we will have the advantage of terrain. Teams will be like so: Team one is Emma, Logan, Remy and me. Team two: Pyro, Beast, Bobby and Kitty. Team three: Cannonball, Colossus and Psylocke and Team four will be Nightcrawler, Jubilee and Thunderbird. Storm will be overhead, giving us some cover."

Emma took over again, ignoring the pointed look from Cyclops.

"I have inside information that there will be four trucks. So each team will go for a truck. Team one, using Logan will try to find Rogue and break her out. All the others are playing distraction. Take out the guards or at least draw their attention from us."

Remy decided to speak up. "Doncha t'ink dat taking all of us is a bit stupid? Wouldn't it be better with jus' one or two? More sneaky like. Alors! I thought I'd joined the X-Men, not the Brady Bunch! There are some things I prefer not to do in a group."

"Shut it, Gumbo. You lost the privilege of telling us what to do when you hurt Rogue. You may have explained it to us back in the cells but I'm still pissed off."

Remy rolled his eyes. "Chillax Wolverine. All Gambit need to do is rescue his girl and explain and then everything will be alright."

"Why did I get a sudden feeling that something is going to go really, really wrong?" Asked Sam, jokingly.

* * *

'_This blows.'_ Thought Rogue weakly as two guards dragged her back to her cell. Her legs weren't working right now so her knees felt every dip and every rock in her path.

After the two muscle headed louts had thrown her roughly in the cell and walked off laughing she managed to get enough energy to roll weakly over.

The experimentation hadn't been as bad as she thought. But after over hearing some of the guards talking about moving her to 'The Other Facility' she wasn't feeling as confident about the future. Also if someone pronounces a capital letter, it can't be good.

From conversations eavesdropped she gathered that this place was just a temporary place and that she was soon to be moved to the archetype of mutant experimentation and that today was just a baby test to get some more info on her and her powers.

Considering that it had hurt like hell she was worried. She had been dragged to an operating room and strapped down to an operating table. Struggling all the way of course, this is Rogue we are talking about.

She hadn't been anesthetised, but she refused to give those bastards any satisfaction by screaming. She didn't know what the fuck they had injected her with but it had hurt like hell, burning through her veins like fire. Then they had taken a very large knife. But thankfully they'd only cut a few inches before she passed out.

Lying down, trying not to tear open the stitches, she tried to figure out what else had happened to her. She had only regained consciousness while she was being dragged along the floor. She was the owner for several more bruises, probably from injections, and many slices. Thankfully they were small but she knew that when they started to ache that they would hurt like hell.

She heard footsteps approaching and rolled her eyes. Gathering all the energy she had, she lifted her head just enough to see Mr In Charge walking towards her cell. _'Do evil villains not need to sleep or eat or pee? Or do they just lack the common courtesy to grant a grace period when someone has been experimented on for several hours?'_

"Now, now Rogue. No time for rest. We're going on a road trip to your new home. I hope you like it as you will probably be spending the rest of your life there. However short it may be."

Groaning internally she flipped him the bird with a tired finger.

The sad thing was that the man seemed to like this. "Ah she is not totally broken! This will make everything so much more fun! I'm also impressed. Most people give up after the first test. But surely this is just to show how great you are, even without your powers. We will have fun Rogue. And together we shall discover many things. Get some rest, my beauty. We move out in two hours."

'_This can't be good.'_ Thought Rogue, miserably. _'I doubt anyone will come. So you're gonna have to get yourself out of this mess.' _And with that cheery thought, she began to plot.

* * *

This time the guards were taking no chances with her. Just about two hours later (who's counting?) several guards (minus Mr Big Shot, she noticed) entered the holding area, all carrying rather big guns.

'_This can't be good'_ thought Rogue. She was still weak and barely managed to give them a death glare.

The door to her cell was opened just enough for one of the guards to be shoved in. Apparently her reputation had spread. His hands were shaking but she only noticed because in them he held a power inhibitor collar. She rolled her eyes and thought _'Not again. They make me itch somethin' awful!'_

He inched forward, watching her like she was a rabid animal. Rogue didn't know what they thought she could do. Of course if glares could melt people then most of the guards would be puddles of goo on the floor... She now knew how Westly felt after being mostly dead due to The Machine. She almost wished she was in the Fire Swamp.

He poked her before scampering back a few steps. She didn't move. So he went in again and gently lifted her head before slipping the collar on.

He was surprisingly gentle with her and when she rolled her head over to look at him she saw that he was surprisingly young and when he looked at her and realised she was watching him, he smiled.

And then he winked at her.

* * *

Logan was crouched on a rocky hill overlooking the road, the rain running off his non friction suit like quicksilver. He had swapped his usual yellow and black suit for one of midnight. It made him almost invisible.

Emma, on the other hand, stood out more than a skeleton at a wedding. She was in a very white corset, tight white trousers, white platform boots and a very melodramatic cape.

Logan rolled his eyes before focusing down the road, scanning for headlights, and very glad that she was hidden from view in the dip behind him

"I heard that Logan." Came Emma's petulant voice from the coms system.

Headlights flashed and Logan, ignoring Emma as he knew it would piss her off, said "Eagle is on the move."

"_Copy that. Mongoose is in position."_

"Firecracker, get off the coms. Now!"

"_Sorry Wolvie."_

He watched the approaching vans with all the intensity of a wolf watching his next meal, a lioness watching a zebra, a diabetic watching a twinkie.

The vans were non-descript – black, unmarked, very simple with, most likely, fake plates. There were four of them, like Emma had said. Logan sniffed the oncoming breeze and underneath the exhaust fumes and the smell of unwashed human was a whiff of Marie.

It was also mixed with chemicals and blood.

Giving a roar of pure rage he threw himself on one of the trucks. He dimly heard Cyclops shout "What are you doing? Stick to the plan!" Logan was. He was just a little early.

Colossus saw this and decided he should do his bit. He stepped out in front of the first van, which hit him and immediately crumpled like tin foil.

The second van hit the back of the first but the last two managed to swerve away in time.

Wolverine, sniffing all the while, tried to get into the third van when he was intercepted by several guards. The other members of his team arrived, but he paid them no mind.

Dispatching them quickly he reached for the handle when he caught a scent that made him stop dead.

"Guys. We have a serious problem."

* * *

Inside the third van Rogue was chained to the wall. Two guards sat opposite her.

She felt the van slow drastically and dimly heard the sound of crashes and fighting but, due to the drugs in her system, she couldn't do much more than that.

One of the guards, the more nervous looking one, tried to get up to go and see what was happening but his friend grabbed his arm.

Nervous turned to look at his friend and said "Gary, what-" but he was cut off when Gary reached across and snapped his neck in one smooth move.

This registered with Rogue, even in her stupor, and it shocked her.

It got worse when Gary came towards her. She tried to weakly move away but was held fast by the shackles. As his hands came towards her, she closed her eyes and hoped that she would die quickly. Her last thoughts were of Remy.

* * *

**AN: Sorry about the cliffie. Is it the end for our heroine? Who does Logan smell?**

**And now I am stuck with the very difficult decision of letting you guys stew for a week or updating soon. Any thoughts?**

**Btw... Cookie for anyone who noticed the double meaning on paragon. As well as meaning "the best example of something" it also means "a perfect diamond that weighs at least 100 carats" Which, considering Emma's powers, I thought was appropriate. **

**Yeah I'm cool. Score for the nerds (and just for Bells) Nerdgasm! **

**And apologies to all who haven't seen The Princess Bride. Actually. I take that back. If you haven't seen it, then you should. It is the only love story I enjoy and I think that Fezzik and Inigo are just incredible. **

**NB: Emma's TK has been the topic of discussion. It appears she is a latent telekinetic and so I've let her bump up her powers as a little treat for her. Mainly because she is one of my favourite characters. And yes it's because she's a bitch.**

**NBB: REVIEW! It makes my shitty day a little better :)  
**


	9. Move it Cajun!

**AN: Sorry for the lateness. The one time I really want to update fast I get inundated with essays and prep AND THEN biology coursework starts to kick my arse. Also trampolining is slightly to blame... as I have a competition on Sunday I have SO many extra practises and am pushing myself harder than I probably should... Anyway this has made me more tired so less writing time etc etc... **

**In other words I'M SORRY!**

**I did expect more of an outcry at the cliffy though... Hmm. Oh well. Here's hoping you enjoy this. And don't worry – I will explore the relationship more and do remember that you are getting a one sided view.**

**Song: **_Dark Blue_** – **Jack's Mannequin

* * *

As his hands came towards her, she closed her eyes and hoped that she would die quickly. Her last thoughts were of Remy.

That's why it was a surprise when she felt cool, gentle and decidedly feminine hands on her face.

Her eyes opened weakly and she came face to face with Mystique.

"Mama?" She asked groggily.

Mystique almost smiled "You haven't called me that in years. Now just stay still while I get you out of these restraints." She unclipped Rogue from the manacles and caught her as she fell sideways, unable to support her body. Mystique gently lowered her adopted daughter to the ground before standing up.

It was then that Logan burst in. He saw Mystique standing over, what appeared to be, Rogue's body.

He let loose a roar of pain and leapt for the blue mutant.

But found himself unable to go any further.

"Logan!" came a clipped English voice from behind him. "We do not attack allies. Especially those who give us valuable information!"

Suddenly Logan felt the pressure on his body drop as Emma rushed forward to Rogue. Crouching next to her friend, the blond telepath brushed the white streak out of her face and behind her ear before pressing two fingers to her temple. "She's alive. She's also barely conscious. We need to get her to the Blackbird now."

Logan moved forward to try and help but was ignored and Emma picked Rogue up herself.

Outside Piotr had wrenched the door off one of the vans and pulled the guards out. He was now sorting them into three categories: Stupid, unconscious and dead. The stupid ones quickly became unconscious and apart from the odd idiot who tried to punch him, and got a broken hand for their trouble, his job was almost peaceful.

Betsy was having a lot of fun. After having her powers off for a while it was great to use them again and she enjoyed the feel of her psionic katana in her hands.

Remy wasn't enjoying it at all. First reason was probably that everyone was sending him evil glares. Second was that he wasn't in the mood for violence, he was more worried about Rogue. And the third reason was that he couldn't get to Rogue. And he was worried about her.

Emma sent Logan to check that there were no guards hanging around, and if there were, to do what he did best. Thankfully they were all occupied with the other X-Men.

Logan nodded at Emma before stepping outside the van and standing to one side, like an honour guard. When Remy made to step forwards he was stopped by a growl from Logan.

Emma exited very carefully, cradling her burden. Remy spotted that the suppressing collar was still on and said "Aren't y' gon' take dat _t'ing_ off her?"

Emma shook her head. "We don't know what they've done to her. Mystique wasn't allowed to see as she was too new. Some of it might react with her X Gene so if we keep it off then she's safe. Hank will monitor her on the flight back. Then we'll do a full check when we are in the med lab."

During her speech Mystique left the van and looked around warily. She was well acquainted with the fact that the X-Men thought of her as an enemy and she wasn't going to leave them any openings to attack her.

Remy shrugged before looking at Rogue. She was nothing liked the peppy spitfire he had come to know and love. She looked so small and pathetic, the bruises standing out strongly. Remy swallowed roughly and suppressed the urge to kill someone.

* * *

Rogue blinked several times and as her eyes became accustomed to the dim lighting she realised she was in the med lab. Lifting her head weakly she caught sight of Remy, fast asleep in a chair to her left.

She heard a rough "Hey" and felt her hands on her, lifting her up slightly before propping her up on the pillows so she could look around. She glanced over and saw Logan. Smiling her thanks she opened her mouth and tried to speak but no sound came out.

A glass of water with a straw came into view. She lifted a shaking hand, trying to ignore the wires that attached her to near by machines and managed to guide the straw to her lips, the glass still held by Logan. Sucking gently at first but harder as she realised that this was the first time she'd had water in several days. As she drank Logan began to stroke her hair gently, almost like he was trying to convince himself that she was okay.

When the glass was empty she sank back onto the bed, tired again. She turned to look at him again and saw him properly this time.

He looked awful. His hair was a mess with bits sticking up in random places. No doubt from running his hands through it. The little of his face that wasn't obscured by his mutton chops was unshaven and almost gaunt.

"You look awful." Whispered Rogue, trying not to cry.

Logan choked out a laugh. "You too kid. I better get Beast, he wants you to activate your powers with him here in case you have a reaction to the... Um... Drugs they gave you." He started to get up but stopped at the sound of Rogue's voice.

Rogue was confused "Wait, what?"

Logan sat back down again and put his head in his hands "You were unconscious when we got you out of the van. We were hoping that your powers would be on so that you could absorb me and heal yourself when we took the collar off..." Logan stopped and took a deep breath as he raised his head from his hands but he didn't look at her. Instead he focused on a crinkle in her bed sheets. "But nothing happened. I was so afraid that you were dead. It was only Emma's reassurances that kept me from losing it." He laughed bitterly. "She made me sit next to you in the Blackbird and monitor your heartbeat to keep me calm."

Logan stood suddenly and turned away "I'll get Hank. Don't you go anywhere." He turned long enough to send her a brief smile before stalking away. It had been a little forced but at least he tried.

Rogue settled back against her pillows, thinking over Logan's words with her eyes closed. She heard the door shut and ignored it.

Remy's eyes snapped open at the sound, however. He had been down in the med lab for over eighteen hours straight with little sleep. And the only times he'd eaten anything was when it have been forced on him by Emma, who visited every hour. The only reason she wasn't living down here with him and Logan was that she was needed upstairs. Mainly to stop everyone killing Mystique.

Remy's eyes snapped to Rogue. Noting her change in position and the difference in her breathing, he deduced that she was awake.

Not his smartest moment, I'll admit.

But now he was faced with a conundrum: pretend to still be asleep and then sneak out later or speak to her.

He wanted to know she was okay but he couldn't help remember the last thing she had said to him. _"Get away from me! I hate you!"_

He'd deserved that. But it still cut him deep every time he thought about it. _'What has love done t'you, Remy LeBeau? Ev'ryone I grew up with, the entire Thieves Guild, dey'd be havin' a good laugh on you now, boy, if dey could see y' t'inkin' dis hard over a femme...' _he thought bitterly.

But he had to suck it up and face the possible wrath of someone who could rip him to pieces with a thought and a gesture.

Remy stood up before clearing his throat subtly.

Rogue's eyes snapped open before sliding to Remy. She saw him standing there, looking at her like she was, at any moment, about to leap from her bed and devour him. She felt relieved to see him but also apprehensive. Wouldn't he hate her?

"Hey." He said softly, glancing up at her face and then down at the floor.

"Hey." She took this moment to examine him. his dark, auburn hair hung haphazardly, un-brushed and unwashed, in his face. His old, worn out trench coat was hanging on the back of the chair. He, like Logan, was unshaven and it looked like he hadn't gotten that much sleep.

"Rogue." "Remy." They said at the same time.

Wow this was awkward.

Rogue felt like placing one hand on top of the other and wiggling her thumbs while saying "Awkward Turtle."

Remy opened his mouth to go first but he was interrupted by Emma bursting in, followed more calmly by Logan and Beast.

Emma dashed over, shoving Remy to one side with a "Move it Cajun."

She hugged Rogue tightly for a second before suddenly releasing her at Rogue's intake of breath "Sorry. Injured."

And just like that Emma was all business. Beast blinked at her abrupt change in attitude from Ice Queen to someone _nice_ and then back again.

Emma placed her hands on Rogue's head and closed her eyes.

Beast took this moment to check the monitors next to Rogue.

Emma pulled out a few seconds later and then moved slightly away to let Beast check Rogue over. "Your mind seems fine and once Hank gives you the okay I'm going to ask you to call on Logan's healing power. I'll be monitoring you throughout. And if it doesn't work then we'll do it the old fashioned way."

Rogue stared at her blankly. "You'll turn on your skin and absorb Logan."

"Just like old times, eh Stripes?" Logan tried to put on a brave face but he knew the risks.

"I've done all the tests I can but I've found nothing. So we are just going to hope that there isn't anything there that could cause damage. But we must take precautions."

Rogue's brow wrinkled. "Tests? Precautions? What on earth are you guys talkin' about?"

Beast stepped forward with almost a reluctant expression. "While you were... away... we don't know what they did to you. They could have injected a number of substances, judging by the marks on your arm. We discovered some files on the previous mission that mentioned that they had found something that would affect the X-Gene. We don't know if it's even been tried or if it's common place amongst them. So we are being careful."

Rogue nodded with a slighty dazed expression on her face. This was all too much for someone who had only been awake twenty minutes and had an angst ridden kind-of-boyfriend standing 6 feet away and gazing at her with puppy dog eyes.

Well he was trying to give her a puppy dog look but it didn't really work with those eyes...

* * *

**AN: I hope you enjoyed this. I'm sorry that the last 500 words or so was really shitty I'm just losing enthusiasm a little... **

**VP x**


	10. Any lower intestinal discomfort?

**AN: Sorry about the time it took me to get this out. I guess my uber writing spree has ended :(**

**I own nothing except a 2nd place trophy for my competition last Sunday and 43.8 points which means I move up a Grade. All recognisable quotes belong to the respective authors.**

**Song: **_Stay With You _**- **Goo Goo Dolls**  
**

* * *

"And 3, 2, 1."

Rogue closed her eyes and concentrated on Logan's psyche. Slowly she felt a gentle tingling as her wounds slowly began to heal.

Beast was anxiously scanning his machines, waiting for something bad to happen. Emma was mentally critiquing the speed of the healing process. It was too slow, something HAD to be wrong.

But nothing unusually bad happened.

Rogue's pores opened and started to release clouds of steam. Or at least something that looked like steam...

Beast and Emma exchanged a look as the ventilation system quickly cleared the area. "Logan's healing power is venting the toxins from your system. Now that they are gone the healing process should speed-"

He broke off as suddenly all her injuries disappeared.

"-up." Finished Emma smugly.

Logan released a breath he didn't notice he had been holding and went forward to squeeze Rogue's hand. "You okay, kid?"

She smiled up at him. "Never better." Then her eyes slid to Remy. He had almost been pushed back slightly and he looked very lonesome and rejected. Rogue closed her eyes, refusing to deal with that now and allowed the conversation of the others to wash over her.

* * *

Rogue was awoken by soft voices later that evening. She cracked an eye but was unable to deduce the time due to the lack of windows in the med lab.

She sighed. There was no way she was going to get back to sleep and so she decided to eavesdrop on the stupid people who had woken her up.

"I don' care! I wanna see her."

"Look. She has had several rather trying days, you should be able to appreciate that. And I am not going to allow anything to happen to her that will cause her undue stress. So you can either leave peaceably or I could call Logan down here." Beast's usually calm and polite voice was almost angry. He certainly wasn't as pleasant as he usually was.

"Dr McCoy... I need to see her. I need to explain."

Remy? Explain? Should she speak up and get it over with or should she pretend to be asleep and put it off a while longer?

Well... Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

"Hank?" she called weakly, disgusted at how pathetic she sounded. When she had the conversation with Remy that could change their whole relationship she wanted to be powerful and in control... not lying down like some invalid.

Well when life gives you lemons...

A blue, furry head was stuck around the door "Rogue! You're awake." He exclaimed happily as he walked over to her and checked the machines before starting with the questions. "How are you feeling? No dizziness? Headaches? Any lower intestinal discomfort?"

Ripping her hand out of Hank's grip, she scowled in a remarkable impression of Logan. "I'm fine. You and Gambit woke me up so I thought I should see what the fuss was all about."

Here Hank looked mildly uncomfortable. "Remy wishes to speak to you. Apparently there was some misunderstanding of sorts... I can get Logan if you wish?"

Rogue smiled at the Doctor's thoughtfulness and patted his furry hand "That's sweet of you but I'll be okay. If he pisses me off he'll be through a wall, okay?"

That made him smile. "If you say so, my dear." He turned and opened the door for Remy.

Gambit slid in gingerly, like the floor was made of lava and there was a particularly vengeful mountain goddess ahead of him. Beast made a subtle exit, leaving the two of them alone.

Remy pulled out a pack of cards from one of a multitude of pockets and began to shuffle them at high speed, looking anywhere but Rogue.

Rogue rolled her eyes and then started to struggle to sit up more. She was still a little weak as she hadn't eaten nearly enough. In a flash, Remy was there, easing her upwards with apparently little effort. He then arranged the sheets around her and started to fold the edges into perfectly straight lines, smoothing out every wrinkle.

Still not looking at her.

Rogue sighed and grabbed Remy's hand, mainly to stop his damn fiddling but also to get his attention.

Remy was freaking out. It all seemed so simple in theory. Go to Rogue, explain everything, be forgiven, warm fuzzies all round. But now that he was actually here... with these emerald eyes watching him... he could almost see the familiar warmth in them he had come to know and love.

But he remembered how Belle's eyes and had gone so cold that they could have frozen him at fifty paces.

And he didn't want Rogue to look at him with that same hatred and revulsion.

So he was surprised when he felt a gentle hand at his chin, lifting it and forcing him to look at her.

Rogue wasn't smiling but her face was open and welcoming. "I'm ready to hear your explanation." She said quietly, trying to be supportive. This couldn't be easy for him. It wasn't easy for her either. But after being captured and, at one point thinking she was going to die, she was willing to try and patch things up.

Remy grabbed a nearby chair and pulled it closer to her. He then took a deep breath and focused on one of the machines on the other side of the bed.

"I was told by the council that I was to look for a powerful weapon to be used in the ongoing war 'gainst de assassins. I was travelling through America and den dere was word of dis mutant who had travelled the world and had every mutant power. Using some contacts of mine I tracked you down. A little research and hypnotic charm later and I was in. I den set about befriending you. But it was harder than I t'ought. It didn't help that you're sexy as hell. And soon I stopped caring 'bout the war. All I cared about was you. Den I got a call from Henri, mon frère, saying dat dere was an explosion and some of de T'ieves died. Ma famille was okay... Cept it was close. dey needed me. I guess dat's when Joseph started getting involved and fucked everyt'ing to hell. I was gonna ask you if you'd come and help me out but... But I love you, and I didn't want you around my sort of people."

"You're honest with the people you love, Gambit. Otherwise...It's a gamble." Rogue took a deep breath. "I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions. I should have stayed to hear you out. Can you forgive me?"

Remy's eyes shot to Rogue's face in shock. "Me forgive y'? chère, y' got it de wrong way round! I should be begging for y'r forgiveness!"

Rogue suddenly started to laugh. "We're both afraid that the other hates us and we are both begging for each other's forgiveness. This is only a little bit messed up."

Even Remy smiled. "Forgiven?"

Leaning over to press a gentle kiss to his lips. "Forgiven. There is just one more thing I need to do. As soon as I'm released from this damn bed!"

* * *

The minute Hank had cleared her she stormed out of the med lab, up the stairs and went to find a certain someone.

Rogue opened the door to his room and saw that he was packing his bag.

"The Professor never sent you on the trip with us, did he?"

Joseph glanced over his shoulder briefly before turning back to his bag. "I do not know what you are talking about."

Rogue moved lithely into the room while Remy stayed in the door way, shuffling cards from hand to hand with all the speed of a magician.

"What made you want to come on the trip?" Rogue kept ploughing onwards.

Joseph paused in his packing. "I don't know. I just had to go with you. Be where you were." His voice was so small and lost. Small boy separated from his mummy in a supermarket small and lost.

Rogue *humphed* at that. "Thought so." Before turning around and sweeping out of the room. Remy watched her go before following her. Man that woman could sweep like a Duchess. Things stayed swept after she'd gone past.

He caught up with her quickly "Where are we going?" He asked. Rogue ignored him but suddenly stopped and her face just screamed 'Light bulb moment' It couldn't have been more obvious that something major had just occurred to her.

She put her hand on his arm and teleported them into their room. Rogue moved quickly, grabbing her duffle bag before throwing clothes and other things into it.

Remy watched her like she had lost her mind.

"Uh... Chère?"

He was then promptly wacked in the face when Rogue threw his duffle at him.

"Start packing. We need to leave. Now."

Remy knew better than to argue with a woman who could crush him in a heartbeat.

"Where're we goin'?" he said as he copied her and threw stuff into his bag.

Rogue shouldered her bag and turned to smile at him.

"Back to our good old university. Come on."

* * *

Rogue insisted that Joseph should come with them. Remy and Logan had looked at her with identical expressions that said a mixture of "over my dead body" and "no way in hell"

But she wouldn't be moved and Joseph wanted to come with her... so she got her way.

Logan took Joseph on his bike while Rogue rode with Remy. And of course there was no hanky panky whatsoever.

After arriving and allowing Logan to smell everywhere to make sure that there were no enemies hiding under any bushes, Logan left and allowed the others to unpack.

They had arrived a little earlier than most of their fellow students so the house was quiet but not empty.

Joseph was ignored and left to his own devices while Rogue and Remy decided to go for a walk.

So there they were, wrapped up tight in scarves, hats and gloves. Well Rogue was. Gambit, due to his mutation wasn't that cold and so just wore a thermal shirt, jeans and his trademark trench coat.

Holding hands they walked away from the house and further into the forest. It was nice to get out and just relax, after the last few, very stressful weeks. It was nice just to spend some time together, reaffirming their relationship and building a few more bridges that may or may not have been burnt down when misunderstandings occurred.

Rogue was surprised at how contented she felt. Normally, having Logan in her head, made her feel antsy and jittery at the best of times. But she felt at peace. Kicking through piles of rich autumn leaves, holding Remy's hand and smelling the forest... well it was a perfect moment.

Rogue pulled Remy to a stop at that thought and turned to face him. he looked puzzled for a moment but then smiled at her when he saw the happy expression on her face. He was even more surprised when she wrapped her arms around his neck, pressed a kiss to his lips and then smiled at him and said "I love you."

Remy smiled back. "I love you too." And he too was content with where he was and his place in the world.

In fairness that was up on the Worst Lines Ever list with 'Nothing Could Possibly Go Wrong.' 'No Turning Back.' And 'This Is Going To Be The Best Christmas The Orphans Have Ever Had'

* * *

Back at the mansion Emma was lounging in the rec room, not really watching the film on the TV screen and sipping a glass of red wine.

Scott walked in and sat on the sofa near her. She spared him a glance before returning her gaze to the window. Which was currently more interesting than the stupid film.

Scott broke the silence first. "How do you know Logan?" He asked quietly.

Emma looked back at him with an incredulous expression. "That's what you've been thinking about asking me for the past hour? I thought it might have been something more interesting to be honest..."

He gaped at her. "You... You're not supposed to read people's mind without their express permission!"

Emma snorted. "You were projecting rather loudly, darling. It was hard not to hear."

Scott was flustered and he stammered and blustered for a few moments before returning to his original question. "So how do you know him? You obviously have some history."

Emma's face took on an expression of far away thinking. With just a hint of remembered happiness.

"Well it was a few years ago. I think before he came to the mansion. I was working for the Hellfire Club back then and he caught our attention. I was sent to approach him and gain a better understanding of his personality and if he would fit in with us. Sadly his feral nature meant he wasn't so good at taking orders. So we parted. Not on the best of terms. But Logan's always had problems with pent up aggression."

Scott nodded mutely. He got up to leave but then turned. "Hellfire Club. Are you still working for them?"

Emma laughed bitterly. "Sadly no. Sebastian found a new Queen. Someone he liked better than me. I thought that it was time for me to leave. Maybe my talents could be used elsewhere."

He nodded again and left the telepath alone, nursing her glass of ruby wine.

* * *

**AN: Thanks to everytone who reviewed the last chapter. **


	11. I think I've had a mental break down

**AN: All recognisable quotes belong to the respective authors. I own nothing except a hag bitch from hell for a biology teacher and a stupid piece of prep she is making me re-do. Grr.  
**

**Song: **_Naive_ **– **The Kooks

Back at the mansion Mystique went down to the med lab to check on her adopted daughter. And found her to be missing. Unsurprisingly this worried her and when Hank wandered in, cup of coffee in hand, yawning, he found her pacing anxiously.

"Morning Mystique. How are you this morning?" He said, trying to be polite.

"Where's Rogue?" The woman demanded angrily, ignoring all pleasantries.

"Straight to the point I see. She left yesterday afternoon."

"And no one thought to tell me?" she demanded angrily.

Hank looked sheepish. "Well we had sort of forgotten you... also Logan was hanging around and you know how he gets."

Mystique hung her head for a second before nodding at the doctor and striding away. She just had to speak to Emma and then she could leave.

Hank watched her go with a puzzled expression before shrugging and returning to his microscope... Now... Where had he put the slide with the gram positive bacteria?

)0()0()0()0()0()0()0()0(

The next morning Rogue awoke to the smell of green tea. Green tea with apples to be precise. She cracked an eye and saw Remy wafting the smell of a steaming cup at her.

"Remy? What in God's name are you doin'?"

He grinned heartbreakingly "Waking up ma chère, course. I know you like your morning tea. So I t'ought I'd bring it to you in bed."

She sat up a little more, shifting to one side to allow Remy to slide in next to her. Sipping her tea carefully a little thought in her brain nudged the rest of her until she asked "How did you know I liked green tea?" she asked, confused.

He laughed softly and put his arm around her shoulders. "I know y' don' like coffee as y' said that caffeine messes y' up. I've seen y' drink normal tea sometimes but den I noticed the pack of tea on y'r shelf." He nodded towards the shelf opposite her bed where her school books and novels were stored. There were also little knickknacks on there such as a framed photo of a woman holding a child, a very large clam or oyster shell that was intact and closed and some photo albums.

It was also where she stored her tea so she could find it quickly.

She turned her head and glared up at him "You shouldn't snoop around people's things! And stay out of my room." She muttered, brooding over her cup.

"Permanently? Aw chère... Y' don' mean that!" he pouted and looked very sad. He then started to run his hand up and down her side. Gentle enough that it wasn't too ticklish but with enough pressure that she felt it and it started to annoy her.

Slapping his hand away she continued to sip on her tea, enjoying the fragrance and basking in the love she felt for the man next to her. "Fine. You can come in sometimes. But only when I say!" she said in mock anger. She was shocked that he was perceptive enough to find out what she liked to drink in the morning. And also tea in bed was just so sweet!

Rogue had never thought of herself as gushy or cutesy but Remy seemed to turn her into one of the giggling school girls she'd always sneered at.

Draining the last of her tea she reached over and put it on her desk before snuggling back up to Remy and wrapping an arm around his chest. In response he tightened his arm around her shoulders.

She leaned up quickly and pressed a quick kiss to his jaw. "Thank you, Remy. This was really sweet of you." He leant down and pressed a small kiss into her hair. "Twas nothin' chère."

)0()0()0()0()0()0()0()0(

Later that day there were a group of them lounging in front of the television when they heard a tremendous bang. It sounded like someone was trying to break down the door. Rogue was out of her chair and in the hall before the rest of them could blink. But as soon as they could they were all standing behind her. If only to see her throw down. She looked like she could drop kick anyone in a heartbeat... And in the mood to...

Even Remy was there. He's pushed himself towards the front of the group but was still slightly behind Rogue. His manly pride took a blow but then he rational side of him thought that if anyone could stop a bullet it was her.

A man threw the door open. He was tall and blonde but rather average over all. He was the sort of man who could fit into any crowd. He held open his arms and proclaimed in a rather camp voice "Hello daaaaahlings!"

Rogue straightened up from her crouch slowly, confused.

"Roguey poo!" the man had espied her and dashed forward to envelop her in a hug. He pulled back too look at her face. "Aww you are just as Stormy described you."

Rogue removed the man's hands from her person and asked "Wait, Storm sent you?"

"Yah! Said you might want some help around here." He peered at the assembled humans behind her. "And by golly she was right!"

Fiona was staring at him and pointing. He nudged Rogue and murmured "Is she okay?"

Rogue glanced over her shoulder. "Yeah she does that. Just ignore her. It's what she does when she sees something that doesn't fit in her perfect little world."

"Ah it doesn't matter. Come! I have much news for you."

He then bodily dragged her from the room to the kitchen and sat her down in a seat. Rogue was in a sort of daze while this happened. She expected HYDRA to come bursting through the door and so had been busy sorting out escape plans and attack strategies. So she had been completely unprepared for the boisterous man in front of her.

Remy entered a few seconds later. "Chère. 'M gonna need y'r help fixing de door. Either dat or we call a repairman."

Rogue answered automatically. "I'll do it later." Her mind was a million miles away.

The mysterious man started to make coffee but Remy intercepted him and said "Let me do de drinks, homme. Y' go explain y'rself before ma petite femme goes Hulk on y'."

The man threw up his hands. "Ah my apologies-" he suddenly shifted form into the stereotypical French man – black beret, moustache and a cigarette in one corner of his mouth "Ma apologies mon ami." He said in a very bad, very put on French accent.

Remy stepped back in shock and automatically went for a pack of cards.

Rogue was on her feet. "Mystique?"

The man snorted. "Nah. I'm much more fun than her. I'm an old friend of Wolvie's. Course he doesn't know I'm here... but anyway! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kevin Sydney. Also known as Morph. I'm an actor, a mutant, comic relief and just plain awesome really."

Rogue sat down again. "Kevin eh?"

"That's me." He said in a comic voice before morphing into a human shape with white skin, almost like a skull but with muscle underneath. He also wore a blue and yellow X uniform.

Rogue looked at Remy and when he saw her expression he hurried over. She looked like she was about to faint. "Chère? Y' okay?"

"Fine. I mean I think I've had a mental break down and lost my mind. But apart from that I'm just hunky dory."

)0()0()0()0()0()0()0()0(

As it was approaching Christmas everyone was thinking about decorating their home and getting a Christmas tree. Of course this lead to the age old debate about natural over plastic and lights over tinsel. Rogue volunteered to go and cut down a tree and bring it back but that was shot down as everyone was just a little scared at the thought. It wasn't that mutants weren't accepted it's just that it made everyone feel better to pretend she wasn't so... special. Except when it suited them or for cheap tricks.

So Rogue, Neal, Alex and Luke were dispatched to get a tree from a store along with other Christmassy things. Although Rogue rolled her eyes at the vague instructions she dutifully hopped into her car and grudgingly allowed Luke to join her. With multiple threats that if he even thought about wrecking her leather upholstery she would see to it that he would spend the rest of his days under the impression that he was a 6 year old girl. Neal took Alex in his dinky Fiat 500. And were, unsurprisingly, not too happy about it.

Arriving at the store Rogue took charge and sent the boys to get a tree while she looked at decorations and tinsel and all that jazz.

)0()0()0()0()0()0()0()0(

Meanwhile Remy was sitting in the living room, trying to think up a present for Rogue. It couldn't be anything big like a car as that would send the wrong signal. Not that she needed a car of course with a LP 560-4 that probably cost over $220,000! But he couldn't go small either as that might equate that she wasn't worth much... So something like a fridge magnet or socks was probably a bad idea...

Hmm... Jewellery? Necklace? Anklet? Bracelet?

What other sorts of jewellery were there?

He scratched his head. This whole present thing was turning out to be harder than he thought...

Maybe a ring?

)0()0()0()0()0()0()0()0(

Arms bursting with tinsel, lights and those small little baubles that are way too delicate but look so pretty, Rogue made her way to the check out where the boys were standing with huge grins on their faces.

"Look at our tree!"

"Isn't it simply the best?"

Rogue smiled at their childlike joy. "It's lovely boys. Now, unless one of you helps me with all these damn shiny things I am going to shove it where the sun doesn't shine." She said this with cheer and joy and so it took them a moment for things to sink in. Nevertheless, soon the boys were carrying the trinkets and she was carrying the tree. With one hand. Not showing off at all...

The cashier gaped at her as she gently put it down before rummaging in a pocket while gesturing at the boys to put everything down so it could be scanned.

The cashier scanned the items quickly, trying not to stare at Rogue in shock as she checked her phone for messages. The boys exchanged smug looks as if to say 'Yeah. She's ours.'

Soon it was done and after paying for the goodies Rogue once again lifted the tree without apparent effort and, whilst texting Remy, she carried it out to the car.

The thing that the boys liked most was the gobsmacked expressions of the people they passed.

But when they arrived at the car they discovered a problem. They had nowhere to put the tree. Rogue refused to let it go near her baby and Neal's pathetic little Fiat probably weighed less than the tree!

Rogue sighed. "Okay this is what we'll do. Put the other stuff in the Fiat and Neal and Alex will drive that." She turned to Luke with an expression that can only be described as similar to when one is experiencing a painful bowel movement.

"Luke. You will drive my Lambo. Fuck her up in anyway and I will crush you into a fine paste and anoint my firstborn with your soul. After ripping out your liver and cooking it and then feeding it to you. Do remember that I have a thousand ways to make you suffer if ANYTHING happens to my car. Got it?"

Luke nodded, wide eyed and feeling like he needed to visit the little boy's room.

Neal bravely, or stupidly, spoke up and asked "Where are you going?"

Rogue simply smiled and grabbed the tree. "Race ya." Was all she said before she took off.

)0()0()0()0()0()0()0()0(

Remy was pacing around, ignoring the twittering of the girls while the decided where to put the tree, waiting for Rogue to return. She had texted him on her way out to say that she was flying here and so he knew it wouldn't be long...

But he still paced.

Hearing a knock on the door he raced there, with Morph on his tail, and whipped it open.

There stood a rosy cheeked, windswept hair'd lovely.

Holding a large Christmas tree.

"That's perfect!" came a screech from behind the boys.

Turning they were almost trampled by the screaming hoard of girls who started to gasp at the tree and decide where things should go.

Rogue was nearly dragged inside so that she could put the tree down and so Remy and Morph were left standing by the open door with slightly glazed expressions.

Thankfully the boys pulled up in the cars a moment later and Luke leapt out asking "Is she here? Did we beat her?"

Morph morphed into a game show host, gel slicked hair and all and announced "The correct answer is... NO!"

The boys were heartbroken. But quickly moved on from it and started to discuss ways they could be better than Rogue as they lifted the bags out of the car.

Glad to be some assistance Remy and Morph, who had shifted back, picked up a bag each and lugged them into the living room.

There they found a group of girls standing at one edge of the room their heads all tilted to the right. Rogue was at the other end, trying to place the tree _exactly_ where they wanted it. No mean feat.

"A little to the left."

Rogue obediently moved a step to the left.

"No. Back to the right."

Half a step in the other direction.

"Can you move forward a bit?"

A dutiful step forward. With only a _slight_ grimace of anger.

"Nah it looks better where it was. Back you go."

Her patience was wearing thin.

"Can you move a little to the left?"

Rogue had had enough. She shunted the special base under where she held the tree and put it down. "That is where the tree is going. Any problems with that and you'll just have to get three of the boys to move it."

She walked, nose in the air, to where the boys were standing with the bags and grabbed one. Placing it on the floor in front of the girls she quickly opened it, allowing its contents to be visible before jumping out of the way.

And not a moment too soon. The girls jumped on that bag like it was the last pair of Prada shoes on sale. They hadn't been this excited since Gucci became a publically traded company!

Rogue placed a gentle hand on Remy and Morph's shoulders. "I'd put the bags down now. While you still have the chance. Then get out of here!"

They took her advice and soon they were running down the halls, laughing like children as someone, somewhere, put on that staple of Christmas music: Merry Christmas Everyone by Slade.

)0()0()0()0()0()0()0()0(

Later, they were all sitting in the lounge, sipping on hot chocolate and reminiscing about Christmases gone.

"-and then he picked up the punch and threw it all over her!"

The girls giggled and gasped at Fiona's story while Rogue rolled her eyes and exchanged looks with all the guys who found her tale a little less than enthralling. Remy smiled indulgently at her and tucked her under his arm a little more. She was in her favourite place – partially on Remy.

"Christmas has to by my favourite time of year! And it's cute as well. I mean the whole nativity thing..."

Rogue sat up from her comfortable position and said "Seriously? You guys are thinking, functioning human beings and you haven't worked it out yet?"

They seemed alarmed at her sudden outburst. "What the hell do you mean?" Asked Neal slowly.

"You guys seriously think that there were baby lambs in _December_? I mean come on! It has been proven that Jesus wasn't born in December. He was born in March/April and the only reason his birth is celebrated on the 25th is that the Catholic Church moved the date to try and convert Pagans and Mithraists. The Pagan celebration of Yule falls between the 20th and 23rd usually and the 25th was sacred to the God Mithras."

Everyone was stunned at her speech.

"What?" She asked self-consciously. "Just because I'm Christian doesn't mean that I can't accept that other cultures and religions are being unfairly treated and have been for thousands of years..."

Neal looked up sneakily. "Sherry anyone?"

)0()0()0()0()0()0()0()0(

**AN: I am Pagan, as some of you will know, and so I had to put that little rant in there. I have tried to stay true to Rogue's Christian upbringing (think Sookie Stackhouse in True Blood – my inspiration "I hate it when you use the JC...") but I thought that people should know about it. It's a real conversation killer. One more chapter of fluff before the real action begins. Maybe. Not sure really... **

**Okay this is a MAJOR plea for reviews. I am aiming for more than the prequel to this so any of you guys hiding out there who have reviewed once, twice or not at all _MAKE YOURSELVES KNOWN!_ Let me know what you think! Or just say hi! I respond to every review and I will give you all a metaphorical cookie!**

**Big thank you to my regular reviewers. There are 4 of you and I love you all deeply! But sadly it feels that you are the only ones who like my story... If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have half the ideas I do :(**

**Please *hopeful smile*  
**


	12. Innocuous little black box

**AN: Wow! Thank you so much guys! 6 reviews for one chapter! That's the most I've ever had. Let's see if we can beat it? I know I'm getting my hopes up a bit but I have a trampolining competition on Sunday and today my back flips decided to fuck up majorly so I am freaking out! So some reviews would really turn this shitty day around *hopeful smile***

**Song: **_Kings of Medicine _**– **Placebo.

* * *

The decorations were up, tinsel glittering on every wall and picture.

The tree was tinkling with a myriad of tiny lights.

It couldn't have been more sickly sweet and Christmassy if someone lit a fire and everyone was wearing reindeer jumpers.

But Remy noticed that something was off... and he could summarise it in a single word:

Wrong.

Make that two words:

Very wrong.

Hell, why not, let's go for three words:

Insanely very wrong.

He hadn't taken Rogue out on a date.

At all in fact.

Well they'd had some 'stay in' dates. But no 'go out' dates.

This was unacceptable and needed to be fixed. Urgently.

He was walking to Rogue's dorm, intent on asking her to come with him when he spotted Morph in the living room. He was watching TV and taking the piss out of the people on screen by shifting into their form and taking on their voice. And then taking what they are saying and... Changing it slightly.

A news readers was on screen saying about the economic recovery and how it has been directly influenced by the mutant phenomenon. She was pretty and blond and Morph, in her shape said "I am a home wrecking slut with no personality."

Remy rolled his eyes. "'M glad to see y'r havin' fun..."

Kevin shifted back into his form and turned to grin at Remy. "You know it, honey buns. Now what can I do for you this fine day?"

Remy was struck by an idea, a light bulb moment if you will. "Go to Rogue. Tell her to wear somethin' nice as me an' her are goin' out tonight. Do whatever y' have to ta get her into a dress."

Morph saluted and, in a bad Scottish accent said, "Aye aye captain!" and saluted smartly before marching off.

Remy rolled his eyes at the strangeness before picking up his phone. He had a few arrangements to make.

* * *

Rogue was lying on her bed, minding her own business, listening to music and reading _Delirium_ by Lauren Oliver. Even if it wasn't released till February. Let's just say she has friends in high places. It was at this point that her door flew open, crashing into the wall with an ear-splitting bang.

Rogue looked up, bored, espied Morph and looked back down at her book. "Afternoon Morph."

"G'day mate. Crikey. Look at you! We've got some work to do." Rogue glanced up again to see Steve Irwin in her room. Morph grinned at her before shifting into, what seemed like, a fashion designer of some sort.

"Now. Let's see what I have to work with here." He said as he strode over to her closet and wrenched it open. He started to look through all her clothes, throwing most of them in a heap behind him, some onto Rogue herself and ooohing and aahing along the way.

"Oooh that's cute."

"Where did you get this? It's adorable!"

"Ugh this is hideous! Charity shop knock off much?"

"Cute shoes."

"This is perfect." He held up a strapless emerald dress. "This and-" he turned to rummage in the cupboard while the arm holding the dress grew long and stretched over to Rogue. His head popped up again "-these shoes!" he said excitedly, holding up a pair of black heels. "These are Christian Louboutin! The limited edition Rolando Zip! There were only four of these made!How on earth did you get them?"

Rogue smiled fondly "I met a man in a bar and ended up saving his company. He was kind enough to repay me by getting me a pair of these."

Morph stared at her. "I love you and hate you at the same time." He shook his head. "Anyway. You have to get dressed! You have to leave soon!"

Raising an eyebrow Rogue said "Leave? Where am I going, pray tell?"

Wiggling his index finger at her like a teacher telling off a child Morph smiled "Nuh uh uh! That would be telling. Now come on! Hop in that shower before that spicy Cajun dish with some seriously hot buns comes up here and distracts you."

Rogue sighed but grabbed the dress and stormed to the bathroom. Morph smiled.

This was going to be fun!

* * *

Remy waited in the hall anxiously. He couldn't remember the last time he was actually nervous for a date. He'd already knocked over a vase (it didn't break) and tripped over his own shoes.

He glanced at his watch anxiously, noting that the hands hadn't actually changed in the two seconds since he last checked.

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. Looking towards the front door he missed Rogue arriving at the top of the stairs. He glanced back briefly and did a double take. Her hair was down and slightly curled. Her makeup was subtle. Her dress suited her perfectly.

She was glowing.

Rogue walked up to him with a smile. "Hiya handsome."

Remy's mouth opened and closed a few times but no sound came out.

"Shall we go then?" She asked, trying to hide a smile.

He nodded several times, still staring at her, but didn't move an inch.

She laughed and tugged Remy towards the front door. "Eyes front and centre sugar."

Finally his brain kicked into gear and stopped being mesmerised by Rogue's body. He then grabbed her around the waist and pulled her in for a quick kiss. "Y' look lovely, chère."

She smiled up at him as he took her hand and lead her outside. Remy then walked her to her Lamborghini but stopped her a few feet away. "I'm drivin'." He stated firmly.

Rogue placed her hands on her hips and said "Oh really?" Before reaching into her small clutch bag while saying "How can you drive when you don't have..." she trailed off, searching for her keys. A small cough and a jingling noise caught her attention.

Remy was holding her keys.

She made a snatch for them but he whipped them out the way and then strolled to the passenger side door whilst swinging them around his index finger and whistling merrily.

He opened the door and looked to her. She rolled her eyes and stormed to the door, stopping to shoot him an ice glare before gracefully sitting down in the car and yanking the door from his grasp.

Remy grinned as he walked round to the driver's door. He couldn't imagine dating a normal girl. It would be so boring!

* * *

Rogue felt the car pull to a stop and was surprised when she looked out the window and up and the restaurant they had just come to.

She turned to Remy "Holy shit. You got reservations for Mimo's? How did you do that?"

He smirked and shrugged modestly "Gambit knows people. Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to." The doors were then opened and a gloved hand offered to help her get out. She took it and stepped out carefully.

Remy was by her side an instant later, tossing the keys to the guy who had helped her out with a murmured "If dere is a single mark on de car den my girlfriend will kill you. She loves dis car more den anyt'ing else. Comprend-vous?"

The man nodded, sweat beading his brow. He obviously wasn't used to being threatened by demon eyed customers.

Remy turned back to Rogue, who raised an eyebrow and placed one hand on the small of her back to guide her into the restaurant.

Once they were seated in a romantic corner of the restaurant and had given their drink orders they turned to the menu.

"Mmm. Everything sounds so wonderful!"

Remy smiled, glad to see her happy. She hadn't had enough time to just be normal and forget about anti-mutant hate groups and anachronistic super mutants trying to take over the world. It was a busy life, he mused, being an X-Man.

"'M glad y' like it, chère."

She glanced up from the menu, candlelight flickering on her cheekbones. "I love it Remy." She reached out a bare hand and took his. "Thank you for all this."

"Tis nothin' for one so beautiful as you." He said, as if reciting a flowery peon to her beauty.

This time she blushed and looked down at her menu.

The waiter arrived with the bottle of Cabinet Sauvignon and allowed Remy to taste it before pouring them both a glass. He then smiled and asked "Are you both ready to order?"

Rogue smiled back at him. He seemed like a nice chap.

In the end Rogue went for the pasta verde with black pepper and salmon while Remy had a salmon with a crème sauce and some spring greens.

Rogue sipped her wine slowly, enjoying the taste when a thought occurred to her. "So what made you want to come out tonight?"

Remy shrugged. "No reason. I just t'ought ma chère deserved a night off. Y' don' get many of dem."

Rogue gave a half smile as she knew exactly what she was talking about. Being an X-Man was fun and all but you really appreciated down time. Even lessons looked less dull than usual.

Their food arrived and the next few minutes were filled with the chomping of happy people enjoying first class food. Remy had to bite his tongue about four times to stop himself from commenting on Rogue's happy noises. And the other time she made them...

Just about managing to stop herself licking the plate clean, Rogue carefully placed her knife and fork with geometrical exactitude on her plate before taking another sip of wine. She was feeling warm and contented. Which was why she became nervous when Remy reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black box.

Rogue dropped her wine glass and it was only Remy's super fast reflexes that stopped the rest of her wine going everywhere. He placed the glass back on the table before saying "'M just so talented don't-" He shut up as he looked up at Rogue. She was sitting there in exactly the same position, still staring fixedly at the small, innocent, innocuous little black box.

She finally moved her hand and pointed at the box saying "That-that's not..." she trailed off lamely, still in shock.

Remy looked at her, confusion written upon his face. But then his expression cleared and realisation dawned.

"NO!" he shouted. The rest of the patrons turned to stare at him. He glanced around before leaning in and saying, quieter this time "No...Sorry to freak you out. Dis is your Christmas present. I jus' didn' want to give it to y' in front of de others... Cause... Well. Y' know dem. Dey'd make it more than it is."

When she didn't touch the box, Remy sighed and opened it before placing it in her unprotesting hand.

Inside was a small golden ring that looked as if it had been plaited. It was beautiful and subtle enough so that it could be worn every day.

She plucked it from its velvet home and placed it on her little finger.

Rogue smiled. Finally. She then looked to Remy and her smile grew. She grasped his hand and said "Thank you Remy. I love it. Sadly you're present is at home and you'll just have ta wait until Christmas Day, sugar."

"But it's worth it, non?"

* * *

They were back at the house, lying on Remy's bed in their favourite positions. Rogue was draped across Remy with her head on his chest. She had started to trace patterns on his chest like usual when she suddenly stopped.

"Chère?" Asked Remy, lifting his head slightly.

"Rems... I just realised that we haven't had the whole family talk..." she trailed off as she felt Remy stiffen underneath her head.

She backtracked quickly "Just forget it, I'm-" But she was cut off when Remy reached up and covered her mouth with his hand.

"Y' really wanna know?"

Rogue thought for a second. "If you want to tell me, then yes."

Her head rose and fell as Remy took a deep breath.

"I dunno where I was born. I grew up on de streets, picking pockets and stealing anything I could. Until one day I tried to pick de pocket of the leader of de T'ieves Guild. He was so impressed dat he adopted me and raised me as his son. I have un frère, his name is Henri. Two other friends, who are both in de Guild called Theoren and Emil. Dey are such trouble makers. Dere was dis one time when a certain someone said dat it would be a great idea to steal a government plane and den-"

"Whoa. Back up the truck! You _stole_ a plane? A government _plane_? A _government _plane?"

"Yeah. So?"

Rogue gaped at him before shaking her head and saying "Just... Carry on."

Remy smirked "Ma cousin, Etienne, Theoren, Henri an' me always used to give our Tante Mattie hell. She was our Aunt. Made de best cookies ever! It was a tradition to steal from her but she nearly always caught us. And gave us a good smack with her wooden spoon..." His expression sobered. "Etienne an' me were close. We had our tilling together. Cept we got captured by a powerful mutant who passed us on to a child slave trader. We managed to escape by jumping off a cliff into the ocean but..." He swallowed thickly. "Etienne didn't make it. An' Theoren never forgave me."

Rogue reached across to grab his hand and gently stroked the back of it with her thumb. "You'd like Emil t'ough. He's funny and light-hearted. Also totally insane an' has no concept for boundaries or rules but..."

Rogue smiled at that. "We should introduce him to Jubilee. They'd be perfect for..." She trailed off and a look of horror came onto her face. "Actually... On second thought that could cause the Apocalypse. Let's keep them away from each other. God help us if they become a crack team."

Remy laughed at her face before asking the question "What 'bout y' Rogue? Y'r family?"

Rogue sighed. "I was born and raised in Caldecott County, Mississippi. My parents loved me and raised me well. But when my powers manifested when I was kissing my boyfriend everything went downhill. Cody went into a coma and daddy kicked me out. Mama was able to sneak me some money but she was too afraid of Daddy to do any more. I hitched rides around Mississippi and ended up spending the night in a forest. It was there that Mystique found me. She took me home and raised me as her daughter. I even called her 'Mama'. She trained me in everything – hand to hand fighting, tactics, cooking. But I found out that she was using me. Then I travelled up towards Anchorage and met Logan in Laughlin city. We then got recruited by Storm and Cyclops into coming to see Xavier and then you know the rest."

Remy leaned down and kissed her on the head. "T'ank y' for tellin' me."

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**AN: I know Rogue's story is a little different from what we know and love but I wanted to combine a bit of movie and comic to make it fit. Okay now we are approaching the final chapter. It should (fingers crossed) be up in time for Christmas. Do note that I will be sans internet from the 15****th****-23****rd**** as I am skiing (yay) But I might be able to work on it some more then and post it either late on the 23****rd**** or early on the 24****th****. **

**Btw... Those shoes are real. Not limited edition. But AMAZING! So if anyone has a spare $795 knocking around...  
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	13. MY BABY!

**AN: Okay major kudos to my wonderful (if irritating) beta Sharky. I think we re-edited this chapter about 6 times or so. Oh and all BLAME (yes no **_**credit**_**, none whatsoever in ANY alternate universe that could ever exist) goes to her as well for destroying Rogue's baby. I mean if she didn't have her uses I would kill her for that. And her obsession with AND and BUT. And her hatred for single sentence paragraphs. Hemingway uses them so there! Don't hate a guy who wasted half his life hanging around Picasso trying to nail his leftovers. Even though Old Man And The Sea was the bane of my life back in English GCSE.  
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**Thank you to all who stuck with me throughout this. Thank you to Chellerbelle, Shark Bite Oh ha ha, Ryromaniac and angel897 for reviewing almost every chapter. My loyal reviewers - this is dedicated to you. Well done for being so gosh darn loyal.  
**

**And put up with me. Which is a hard job! **

**So they need medals of some kind. **

**Or at least some therapy and chocolate.**

**Anyway THANK YOU! *hugs***

**Song: **_Happy _**- **Leona Lewis**  
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**Enjoy!  
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The next day Rogue and Remy were curled up on the couch. As it had been snowing, there wasn't much else to do these days except for watch crappy movies on TV. Christmas Day had been fun – getting up early like little children to run downstairs and open their presents. Remy had gotten Rogue a book entitled "City of Bones" by Cassandra Clare which she was now enthralled by.

Rogue had gotten Remy, as a joke, a little motorised clock that would make you chase it to turn it off and a small necklace with a ring on it for his real present. On the ring was inscribed "Think of me when you look upon this."

He had put it on immediately and Rogue would occasionally catch him fingering it with a small smile on his face.

It was while they and their housemates were watching the something that Rogue heard a noise. She glanced up from her book briefly but then dismissed it as nothing.

There the noise was again.

This was getting suspicious.

Rogue marked her place with her bookmark and said to Remy "I'll just be a minute."

She pulled on a jumper as she opened the front door and stepped outside warily.

Her spidey senses were tingling.

"Rogue?"

She spun around to see Magneto hovering a few feet away. "Buckethead! What are you doing here?"

Magneto floated down majestically "My dear, what are you doing here with these-" his voice turned from charming to sneering in an instant "-homo sapiens?"

"I go to school here, dumbo." sighed Rogue "Now what are you doing here?" she watched as several of his acolytes appeared out of nowhere.

Magneto froze "You...go to school here? I thought you were with the X-Men." He seemed shocked and lost for words for a moment

"It's you then. We all thought you were with the X-Men and therefore safe. But... Rogue!" he grabbed her upper arms "Do you-"

"Rogue!" shouted Remy, running out of the building. He slowed for a moment when he saw Magneto holding her and he thought about going for his cards, but he dismissed the thought and hurried towards them.

The rest of Magneto's followers started to gather when they saw Remy run towards them but they backed off at a wave of Magneto's hand.

Rogue's face was calm, if slightly irritated so he didn't think much was wrong...

"Its fine, Remy." Rogue said as soon as he got close enough "Just an old friend being seriously irksome." She said with a glare aimed at the man who was still holding her arms.

"Rogue!" urged Magneto, shaking her. "I need you to listen to me. You are in great danger!"

"Really?" Asked Rogue, dryly. "That's a change. I used to be an X-Man but it seems that it's still hanging over me. I left for a reason – I wanted to be a normal person. That's why I came here! Now what on earth-"

A massive rumble that sounded akin to a space shuttle taking off sounded over head. A giant airship floated into view.

Vertigo took this moment to mutter "Holy fuckballs. That looks like the big ship thing out of Avatar."

"Shit." Swore Magneto, which caused Rogue to stare at him in shock. "They're here."

Remy spoke up. "Who? Who de fuck are dose salauds?"

"HYDRA. They are why we are here. We got word that they had found a mutant who had a special type of DNA. What they want this mutant for, we don't know but we decided to get here first to make sure the mutant doesn't fall into their hands."

"And now you think the mutant is me?" Asked Rogue sceptically. "Pfft. They've had me already and I'm pretty sure they're sick of me. You need to start taking that helmet off more, Mags. I think you're not getting enough oxygen to your brain! I mean-"

She was cut off by a loud voice emanating from the airship.

"Attention! The mutant who goes by the name of Rogue must surrender or you will be taken by force."

Magneto looked at Rogue slightly smugly. "I am pretty sure it's you, my dear."

"Crap." She sighed "I've had enough of being experimented on by them, come hell and high water before I let them take me back there again. Humph, and this day was going so well."

"Rogue!" She heard a voice call from behind her. Rogue turned to see Luke, Neal, Millz, Fiona and pretty much everyone else running towards her.

"Double crap. I spoke too soon. I should probably talk to them." She started to walk towards them when she saw Remy. He was standing, staring intently at the spaceship.

"Rems." She said quietly, touching him on the shoulder and moving into his line of view. She moved her first hand to his sunglasses and with the other she held his hand tightly. Rogue gently removed the sunglasses but his eyes remained fixed on the ship.

She tugged at his hand gently, turning him away from the sight in front of him. Remy snapped his gaze to her and began to search her eyes. He gently placed his free hand on the side of her face.

"I..." he started, looked away and then back "I won't let you go. I can't lose you again. Seeing what they did to you last time-" he broke off.

"We won't let them take her, young man. She is too valuable to us." Stated Magneto, watching the pair with an indefinable expression on his face.

Vertigo and Arclight had intercepted the dorm mates but they could only delay them for so long before-

"Rogue!" yelled Luke as he dodged between the two mutants and barrelled towards where Rogue and Remy were having their moment.

Remy stepped back, releasing Rogue's hand as Luke swept Rogue up into a hug. Matt was the next one to break free and he wrapped his arms around the little that was left.

"What's happening, hookah?" asked Luke, concerned. "Yeah what's with the space ship? It's like something out of Doctor Who!"

"Not breathing guys." Came the muffled voice from inside the muscle sandwich.

The beef-cakes disentangled themselves and stood in front of her with identical postures – crossed arms and concerned faces.

Rogue pushed through them, grabbing Remy's hand and towing him back towards the boys.

She glanced over her shoulder at the ship and saw that it was almost coming into land. She didn't have much time left.

"Here's the skinny. People in the ship, organisation called HYDRA." She explained, pointing at the craft. "They want me" pointing at herself "to experiment on as they have no life and a death wish."

"Eloquently put. My Acolytes have called the X-Men and they will be here soon. Civilians should move so they don't get in the way of the experienced and trained fighters." He said the last sentence loud enough for the rest of Rogue's housemates to hear.

Luke bristled at that. "Who's the douche in the funky helmet?" he asked Rogue before turning to Magneto. "What is your problem, man? Just because we look normal doesn't mean we can't pack a punch! I mean look at Rogue!"

Magneto sneered at the show of spirit. "Oh really? What can you do? Except get in the way of the higher species?"

Luke rolled his eyes before bringing up his force field. It shimmered blue and there were swirling patterns, like the rainbows you see on bubbles. "Are we so useless now?"

Magneto raised an eyebrow "Ah you have talents, but you are still not trained. I doubt you could hold that force field for long."

"Bring it metal head!" Shouted Luke angrily, stepping forward, ready to kill the bastard who'd insulted him.

However, he was stopped by Rogue. She stood between them and said in an eerily calm voice. "Fighting amongst ourselves is not going to help. Luke, take the others and get them to safety. Not the building, somewhere else. I am relying on you to take care of them with your shield." She turned to Magneto "You insult my friends again and you will deal with me. Now let's go."

Rogue walked over to the rest of the Acolytes and while some of the sneered and ignored her, a few listened to what she had to say.

Remy watched her go before casually remarking "Well de problem with Rogue, her shortcoming I guess," He smiled softly, "Would be dat Rogue sifts people into two simple categories, either she likes y' or she doesn't. If she likes y', y' can bet dat you will never have anything but loyalty and friendship from her, y' ask her for help she won't even hesitate to say yes. If she doesn't on the other hand at the very most she can tolerate your presence."

He paused, finger on chin in a mock thinking position. "Course if you piss her off den y'r dead."

He grinned as Magneto rolled his eyes before turned to watch as the ship landed and soldiers started to pour out.

"Merde..." muttered Remy before shouting "Rogue!"

She heard his shout and turned back briefly to look at the ship. Her eyes widened and she ran back to where the rest of her housemates were still standing.

She snapped her fingers in front of Luke's face and when he turned to look at her she shouted "GO NOW!" and put all the power she had in that shout.

He nodded shakily and started to herd everyone away.

Rogue then turned back to the ship and took a deep breath. Remy stood by her on one side and Magneto on the other with the rest of the Acolytes spread around them.

Magneto tried to get rid of the guns that the men were training on him and the others but found that he did not affect them. "Plastic." He muttered the word like a curse. He then glanced behind him. "Arclight. Target those weapons with your shockwaves."

Arclight stepped forward, removing her gloves before swinging her arms together with immense power. The weapons the soldiers were holding splintered on impact. Some of the shards even flew up and injured the men.

Unfortunately she only managed to get about a quarter of the weapons before the rest opened fire. Magneto grabbed several cars from the roadside and held them in front of the small group of mutants to serve as protection.

Rogue was trying to think of a strategy when she realised that one of the cars looked rather familiar...

"MY BABY?" She gasped out in shock. "You just used my baby as a block for guns."

Magneto was unmoved at her emotional appeal. "It was either this or death. You chose."

After planning his subsequent torture for daring to harm her pride and joy, she began muttering unsavoury things about what she was going to do to Magneto later and where he could shove his speech Rogue settled down but winced at every bang she heard.

Magneto smiled to himself. This was going to be easier than he thought.

That was until more soldiers were coming, from all directions. Soon they would have to face them in combat.

He was just planning his strategies when an authoritative voice called out "HOLD YOUR FIRE!"

All the soldiers immediately stood to attention at the voice and Rogue and Remy exchanged a look.

The man, the man who had taken Rogue, the man who had caused her so much strife was now walking across the field to her.

Inside a little voice said 'This is your chance. Come on. Throw something at him! Anything! A pumpkin would be good. They're really hard at this time of the year and if you aim it could take his head clean off!'

Rogue shook her head to clear it of those tempting but implausible thoughts. The man who had been such a bane to her existence couldn't be killed by a pumpkin. It would be too...ordinary.

"Ah Rogue. We meet again."

He had reached them.

Rogue smiled brightly "Hey! How've you been-" she cut off suddenly. "You know something? I don't even know your name! Isn't that terrible?"

The man smiled. "You may call me Malice. Dragon Malice at your service." He did a little bow at this.

And came up to several unimpressed faces. "Malice? Seriously? That is so lame!" Said Vertigo, trying not to laugh.

Malice ignored her and instead turned to Rogue. "My pet, it was a pity you had to leave us so soon last time. You didn't even wait to say goodbye!"

"Yeah there was a reason for that. Your winning sense of hospitality did leave one wanting."

He merely smirked at that.

"So... Malice... You married if anything? Do I hear the pitter patter of tiny evil feet?"

The man frowned. "You disgust me. You think that you are better than me because of a genetic fluke? Pfft!" He spat on the ground a few feet from them.

"That's gross." Murmured Blink, her face showing her disgust.

His smile returned. "As you can see you are vastly outnumbered."

Rogue matched his smile. "We usually are."

"Your situation has become quite untenable."

"It usually does."

"You are within moments of being swarmed by my loyal soldiers and some of you will be torn apart in a maelstrom of pain and fury while others will be kept to be experimented on and tortured."

Rogue paused. "Okay that's a new one on me."

"You can surrender now and save some of your friends. Or you can fight and lose."

Rogue pretended to think about her options. "I go for... Option C."

This threw Malice off his stride a bit. This obviously wasn't in the 'Evil Villain' script that he was reading from. "And what's that?"

"We fight. You lose. You leave us alone and we don't hunt you down."

Malice let out a booming laugh at Rogue's remark. "The same old spunk. I will enjoy ridding you of that." Then, with that witty remark he began to stalk off again.

However, he was interrupted by Joseph running out of the building to Rogue's side in concern.

"Right on time." Malice smirked, turning back to Rogue.

"Rogue. I'd like you to meet the man who made all of this possible. Look to your left." He seemed to be enjoying himself a little too much for Rogue's liking...

Rogue turned her head and saw Joseph standing there, looking confused.

"What? I let you into my life, you god damn sonofabitch. I helped you, and this is how you repay me? You endangered not only me but all the children at the mansion!"

Joseph was taken aback by Rogue's accusation. "I did no such thing! I never lied to you. I only told the truth! I did not remember anything more than waking up in an alley." Joseph looked like he was about to cry.

"You expect me to believe that? How else would they only show up when you were with us? I thought there was something fishy going on so I brought you back here and look what happens! You little-"

"Oh no, he was not knowingly sent to you. We had some of Magneto's DNA lying around so we thought 'why not make a clone?' Then it was easy to grow him to adult size and implant a basic suggestion to find you."

Joseph glanced to his left and suddenly noticed that Remy was holding a card, which was glowing scarily bright, and staring fixedly at Joseph. It was all rather worrying for the poor man really.

Malice continued "Then all it took was a simple tracking node implanted into his body to lead us straight to your door. Now I ask you again, surrender or we will raze this place and kill all who stand against us!"

Rogue folded her arms. "Bring it."

Malice left, hopefully for good this time, and Rogue turned to Remy.

He honestly thought about blowing Joseph up for a good three-seconds before they were interrupted by Morph running up to them, in a bathrobe with a shower cap on a scrubber in one hand and a yellow ducky in the other. "Am I late?"

Rogue rolled her eyes before they were suddenly attacked by the aforementioned soldiers.

Rogue ducked under the first clumsy swing and came up with a vicious uppercut that knocked the wind out of her opponent. She then spun agilely, catching an incoming baton with her arm before executing a fan kick, sweeping the baton away, and following it up with a sold roundhouse to the ribs.

Remy charged cards, batons and the odd soldier, and throwing them left right and centre.

Magneto started to throw any piece of metal at any enemy he could see. Vertigo was making it easier for him by affecting the inner ears of groups of soldiers. It was like shooting fish in a barrel.

Rogue leapt at the nearest man and, after kicking him in the temple, used his shoulders as a springboard. Launching herself at the next solider she tucked a quick somersault and landed in a crouch. Batting the gun away with one hand as she stood she kicked him in the nuts and then, as he slumped forwards, holding his testicles, she shoved her knee into his face.

Dodging most of the soldiers and then knocking out the ones that got in her way, Rogue made her way to Malice. She was totally focused on the man who had captured her, tortured her and now had the gall to come back and threaten everyone she loved. Her only aim was to take him out so he couldn't hurt anyone anymore. She knew that even if she stopped him or he lost interest then he would go after someone else sooner rather than later.

Remy noticed that she was being careful not to kill the soldiers, just get them out of commission. He shook his head at her. Logan would be annoyed.

Speaking of Logan... Remy turned, striking an enemy with his staff and noticed the Blackbird coming into land.

Logan leapt out as soon as the doors opened, straight into the middle of the fray while the rest of the X-Men took care of the rest of the soldiers: wielding lightning, psionic katanas, plasma eye-beams and other mutant abilities that would scare most people shitless

The problem was that for each soldier they defeated two more were ready to take their place.

"This is getting tiresome!" Shouted Jubilee as she shot fireworks in another soldier's face before sweeping his legs from under him and stamping on his balls.

"I agree. There are too many!" Replied Piotr as he took a knife on his arm before punching the man so hard that he flew several feet.

As Jubilee became distracted with her complaining, Emma, quickly switching to her diamond form, intercepted a bullet meant for Jubilee before smacking her opponent upside the head. "I've had bloody well enough of this."

Using her telekinesis she lifted herself into the air and flew to where Rogue was almost reaching Malice. 'Uh oh.' She thought 'This can go either very bad or so-far-past-bad-it's-unrecognisable.

Emma watched as Rogue faced off against Malice.

Who was smirking. Again! Did he not have another expression than smug superiority?

"Come to defeat me on your own? Just a one on one battle? Pet against master?"

Rogue shook her head. "Okay first off; that's just rude. Second, I'm pretty sure you've never been my master; and I am certain that I have never been a pet."

"Aww." He said patronisingly. "You think we're equals? How adorable!"

Rogue rolled her eyes impatiently and was going to whip him with an optic blast when Emma interrupted.

"Sorry to break up this little heart to heart but... I have an idea." She said, walking up to them to stand next to Rogue.

Malice decided to humour her. "What might that be Miss Frost?"

Emma ignored him and turned to Rogue. "You can't kill him." She murmured quietly. "You are too good for that. Let me take him down. I'll make sure he never comes back."

Rogue shook her head. "No. I can do this."

Turning back to Malice she took a deep breath before lifting off the ground. She then flew at him, knocking him off his feet. Straddling his waist she held one hand to his throat and placed the other right on his heart.

"I want you to know that I could kill you without blinking. I have super strength so I could crush your throat or reach into your chest and rip out your still beating heart. I could manipulate the iron in your blood and so rupture your cells with my power over polarities. I could make you think that you are a rat using my telepathy. I could do anything I wanted to you. I could make you suffer for the rest of your life, and there is a large part of me telling me to do to that. But you know what? If I did, then it would make me just as bad as you, and I am better than that."

She removed her hands and got up, turning into steel just as some soldiers fired at her. With a wave of her hand they were swept off their feet by her telekinesis. Rogue nodded to Emma as she passed and said, "Do it." in a low voice, not bothering to look back at what Emma was going to do to the scum.

Emma placed her hands on her temples and concentrated. Entering Malice's mind she bypassed all useless information, gathering only what she needed. That done, she manipulated Malice's brain into believing that he was a 37 year old man who wanted nothing more than to work in a soup kitchen and do charitable work the rest of his days. He would no longer remember who he was or what he had done. Any attempt to remind him of his past would be in vain. He could no longer hurt anyone.

Just how can Emma do all this? Well, she had been training with Professor Xavier and so had a few new tricks up her sleeve.

Emma's eyes that were closed in concentration suddenly shot open. HYDRA had a plan; a very bad plan. One that involved Rogue.

Emma ran across the battlefield as fast as she could; taking down all those stupid enough to get in her way. She had to tell Cyclops. She had to get Rogue out of here.

"Cyclops!" Emma yelled as she neared her leader.

"What is it Emma, I am kind of busy right now?" Cyclops replied as he shot back two charging soldiers.

"We have a serious problem." Emma began, as she recounted the information she learned from Malice's mind.

Even though Malice was defeated, the rest of the soldiers didn't know that and kept on fighting. For now, the rest of the organisation was still intact. More and more men just kept pouring out from smaller helicopters and cars. There were too many of them.

Rogue carried on fighting, along with the other X-Men, but soon they began to tire. They couldn't keep this up forever.

"Rogue!" shouted Cyclops as he ran up to her. "You need to go! HYDRA is after you and we can't hold them off forever!"

Logan overheard this and dispatched the enemy he was dealing with before grabbing Rogue by the arm. "You're comin' with me, darlin'."

She wrenched her arm from his grip. "The hell I am! You guys need me here! There can only be a finite amount of soldiers."

Cyclops ran his hands through his hair in exasperation "Yes, but Rogue, even if we beat them now they will come back! HYDRA are a huge organisation. They are all across the world and they will continue to hunt you. The only thing to do is hide and hope they lose interest eventually. Emma may have taken out Malice but they still might be after you!"

The sound of a motorbike was heard, coming closer.

It was Remy. He skidded to a stop a few feet away "Come on, chère!"

"Oh no you don't. Not with him!" growled Logan angrily.

Cyclops blasted another enemy before turning back to them. "We don't have time! Rogue, go!"

She hesitated for a moment before leaping on the back of Remy's bike. Remy revved the bike but was stopped by Logan. He grabbed her arm and whispered "Stay safe." Before they shot past him and the Wolverine watched one of the few people he had come to care about, drive off in a cloud of smog.

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**AN:****Anyway this is the final chapter and I want reviews. Major ones for this being ****THE LONGEST CHAPTER EVER!**** (Over 4,000 words) *dun dun dun* I also want to beat the review count for the prequel. So I am aiming for 9 reviews. **

**All you people out there who have reviewed once or maybe twice PLEASE (begging on knees here) review again. **

**Those who have NEVER reviewed PLEASE try it. It might make you feel better and it will certainly make me infinitely happier than I am at the moment.**

**P.S Third installment will be up either by Xmas or on the New Year. Enjoy the cliffie in the mean time and speculate about what's going to happen.**

**P.P.S MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA**

**P.P.P.S Review! *hopeful smile*  
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